A SOLDIER's Weapon
by Oniko
Summary: There is a mysterious new SOLDIER at ShinRa. Sephiroth searches for the truth about Cloud Strife, ShinRa, and himself, while being haunted by the possibilities of darker futures. AC!Cloud/Young!Sephiroth
1. Chapter 1

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 1

… … …

When Sephiroth first saw the blond SOLDIER, Sephiroth didn't think much of him. After Hojo released Sephiroth from the labs to the SOLDIER program he spent most of his time either in the labs or on missions. Lately though, his mission load has been lightening. The newness of Hojo's prize weapon had been wearing off, so he had some free time. Even though he had been at Headquarters for a little over a year everyone was still rather new to him and the blond was just one more new face.

Not knowing what else to do with himself Sephiroth spent his time lurking around the rec rooms and cafeterias listening to SOLDIERs and secretaries gossip. It was then that he learned that the blond was new to everyone else, too. He was a SOLDIER from some kind of alternate program out of a subsidiary company down in the Fort Condor area called WolfHaven. Which everyone thought explained the wolf motif the man had going on rather neatly. According to rumor the man also had Hojo in going off in one of his rages. Not only did he insist on beating the "tar" out of Hojo top First Class, he also refused to let the Science Department near him. Sephiroth couldn't help but wonder why Hojo hadn't set him up against the blond, but he also knew that, as much as Hojo liked to brag about Sephiroth being his best creation, he also had a tendency to treat him like glass. Hojo never put Sephiroth into any situation in which he was not in clear control of the outcome.

So, Sephiroth had his first goal set, learning more about the mysterious blond. He didn't feel right just asking any of the SOLDIERs directly. He learned quickly listening to the rough banter that you just didn't if you didn't also want to get teased mercilessly, or possibly ostracized, for anything that could be misinterpreted as sexual interest in the 'wrong' person. And, apparently, everything could be misinterpreted as sexual interest.

Plus, he didn't want Hojo to find out that he was curious about the blond. Sephiroth remembered all too clearly what happened to the last friend he had made, a young guard who liked to talk about his baby brothers and smile beneath his mask, who had been turned into an abject lesson. Sephiroth had been able to slip through the security and put the young man out of his misery, but given Hojo's gloating the next morning he still wasn't sure whether that was exactly what Hojo was going for. It made him cautious trusting the other young SOLDIERs like Angeal or Genesis, both of whom seemed friendly enough, though he doubted that they would hold long against the scientist's interest. The blond might, he already had Hojo chewing the furniture, but Sephiroth didn't want to give Hojo any more reasons to go after the other man.

Sephiroth didn't really do anything more then what he had been doing and was eventually able to put a name to the face. Cloud Strife. Sephiroth wasn't sure he liked the name. 'Cloud' sounded weak, although he was anything but. The blond spent a lot of his time in the training rooms. Sephiroth found himself spending more and more time there watching the other man. Sephiroth had heard the phrase 'poetry in motion' before and thought that it was trite and pointless, but that was exactly what it was like, watching the blond SOLDIER. Every movement was tight and controlled graceful arcs and swift strikes, the perfect harmony between muscle and movement. It was the most beautiful thing Sephiroth had ever seen. And the _sword_.

At first glance it was a wide buster sword like that favored by Angeal, but then between one turn and the next it would split apart and two swords were in the blond's hands, sometimes they were put back together sometimes one was discarded to be picked up later. Sephiroth was not familiar with the forms that the blond used. He recognized the individual strikes and moves, of course, but the overall patterns were completely new. Cloud must have created the forms to work with his unique blade.

Sephiroth's favorite was the one where the blond started at the end of the room and worked his way in a spiral towards the center, discarding the pieces at certain points so that they formed a perfect circle with the blond barehanded in the center kneeling in what looked like supplication, but was just coiled power waiting to lash out. Then he exploded back into motion, moving in the reverse of the inward spiral, picking up and reforming the sword until he ended where he began.

Sephiroth had been considering how to approach Cloud during the past week he had been obliquely stalking him. The man was difficult to read, and more so to approach. He could give the Turks lessons on inscrutability. Sephiroth was distracted, trusting too much to anonymity of his Second Class uniform and helmet. With his long hair braided back he looked enough like any other Second that he didn't think twice before following Cloud into an access hallway along one of the large conference rooms. It was not until he found himself pressed up against the wall that he realized his error. With the now familiar clicking of the short side blade being unfolded as his only, brief, warning before he had the sharp edge pressed against his throat. His helmet had been knocked aside and everything seemed simultaneously brighter and less defined without the enhanced optics.

Apparently, Cloud did have expressions, his glowing blue eyes grew hard and his lips thinned into a hard line. "Sephiroth."

"Cloud," Sephiroth thanked the stars that his voice didn't crack. It had been doing that lately. Hojo said it was a normal part of being fifteen, but he never explained why he couldn't _fix_ it.

"You've been following me," Cloud said. "Why? What do you want?"

Sephiroth blinked at him; why was he following Cloud? He never really thought out the reason why, it was just something that he did. Mostly he was curious. He wanted to know more about the blond SOLDIER. He wanted… "I want you to train me."

Cloud tilted his head to one side, looking less like a curious human and more like a Wastelands Wolf eyeing the strange thing it had caught and wondering if it was going to eat it or not. Sephiroth felt his cock twitch and jump as his mind wandered into unhelpful places after that thought. This being fifteen thing? Really annoying sometimes.

"Why would I do that?" Cloud asked, interrupting his train of thought.

It was a spur of the moment suggestion. He didn't have any reason why. Just that- "Because you're good." _Powerful, beautiful, perfect._ "The best. None of my current First Class trainers can even come close to what you can do."

Cloud stepped away. He lowered the sword and pressed the dull back edge against his thigh. The blade folded with a harsh ratcheting sound. Cloud turned and walked away, clapping the folded blade back into place without even looking. Sephiroth felt his heart drop, even though it was a spur of the moment request he really had been hoping that- "Aren't you coming?"

Sephiroth looked up to see Cloud had paused and half turned to watch him. "I- Yes, sir!" Sephiroth fought the sudden, alien urge to grin. He sketched a quick salute and bent to pick up his helmet.

"Leave it."

"But-" Even as he protested Sephiroth left the helmet on the cheap laminate floor to follow Cloud to the elevator bank. "But the enhanced optic views are-"

"We don't need it."

The elevator door closed on any chance of him going back to get the helmet, not that Sephiroth minded an excuse to lose the uncomfortable thing. But it was part of the regulation uniform, so he argued anyways. If there was one thing he learned early and often was that blatant disobedience got you nothing but trouble. "The armor properties-"

"Don't matter."

"The direct PHS connection?" These were all things that had been patiently repeated to him that he absolutely needed in order to function as a SOLDIER.

Cloud paused and thought about that one. "Occasionally useful," he conceded. "But mostly annoying."

It was about this time that the elevator they were in passed the training floors and continued on downwards. "We aren't going to the training rooms, sir?"

Cloud gave him a flat look.

"Where are we going?"

"Out into Midgar," he said. "There are some places in the slums that are good for low level training."

"The slums?" Sephiroth felt his eyes widen. He was only allowed on carefully scouted, measured and controlled missions. Often something created in the training sims so that the Science Department could carefully measure his skill level, and the upper management could watch from the comfort of the vid feeds in their offices. He had never been out somewhere so, so uncontrolled. Who knows what might happen?

"There are some fairly weak monsters down there. It's a good place to start." Cloud explained, his head tilted back as he watched the floor numbers over the elevator door. "I did."

Uncertain what to say to that, Sephiroth said nothing. They reached the third floor in silence and the doors behind them opened out onto the parking garage. He followed Cloud along a row of motorbikes that ranged from colorful little scooters to lightly armored harriers.

Cloud walked to one of the armored harriers. It was a long low beast of a machine made for all types of terrain and numerous compartments that could probably hold a lot more then it reasonably should. Cloud reached out and ran a hand lightly over the leather seat. "Hey, baby. You miss me?"

The bike made no reply. With a greeting like that Sephiroth was half expecting something. The front compartments hissed open as Cloud hit a release button near the apex of the handlebars. He swiftly broke down the massive sword and placed each blade into a compartment that had to be custom made for it. Cloud held out his hand to Sephiroth. Sephiroth blinked at him unsure of what he wanted, surely he didn't expect Sephiroth to place his hand in Cloud's, that seemed a little- odd.

"Your sword," Cloud prompted, waving his hand in a brief 'come here' gesture.

Sephiroth reached behind him and unhooked the broadsword from his back harness and passed it to Cloud. Cloud stared down at the thing like Sephiroth had handed him a live snake. No, not a live snake. Something slimy and worthless, but not dangerous. A snake two weeks dead maybe.

"It's a ShinRa Standard Issue Broadsword," Sephiroth said, a little defensive.

"It's cheap pot metal that can't hold an edge for more than two minutes," Cloud said sharply. And, he wasn't wrong, but it was what ShinRa gave them to work with. Not that holding an edge meant much of anything. With SOLDIER strength he could drive even a dull edge through flesh and bone, and frequently did until the blade finally gave out. Then when the blade was bent and warped beyond all recognition he simply picked up another one and kept on going. Swords were just weapons. Tools to be used and discarded when no longer able to perform their function.

Cloud pocketed the two Materia, set the cheap sword aside, and mounted his bike, gesturing for Sephiroth to get on behind him. Sephiroth made a quickly aborted motion to go after the discarded weapon. "But-"

"I'll get you a new one, get on." He couldn't argue with that.

Cloud didn't have any helmets. He didn't even have a second pair of goggles. Sephiroth wrapped his arms around Cloud and pressed his face into Cloud's back to protect his eyes. He was glad that he braided his hair this morning. Otherwise it would have turned into an unholy mess to comb out. And, while most of the guys in the barracks were too scared to tease him to his face, he still would be able to hear the remarks behind his back. Sephiroth tried to push the thoughts of the other SOLDIERs out of his mind and focus on the present.

It didn't take long for Cloud to reach their destination below the plate, Sector Seven slums. The place was quiet this early in the day, dim light filtered down from above was augmented by flickering neon lights and lines of mismatched streetlamps. The buildings were all ramshackle constructs of clapboard and repurposed materials discarded from topside. This was a fairly built up sector with residents on the second and third floors above storefronts and bars. A group of children played with a rag ball along the widest of the narrow streets that twisted through the sector.

Cloud parked the bike in front of what may have been a weapons shop, or a garage. Sephiroth couldn't tell by the collection of cheap knives and battered oil cans on display in the window. Cloud nodded at the man behind the counter before being waved through to the back room.

A burly, bear of a man dressed in worn jeans and a heavy leather apron sat at a massive grindstone sharpening what looked like nothing more than half of a wheel rim attached to a long metal pole. The man set aside the weapon and stood to greet them.

"Hey, Cloud. How's that engine mod on Fenrir working for you?"

"Response is slow and the acceleration is crap," Cloud said bluntly.

The man sighed explosively. "Ah, yeah that's the trouble with those Mako engines. They- "

Cloud gave the man small smile and sighed regretfully. "Unfortunately I didn't come to talk shop. I need a sword for Sephiroth, here."

"Yeah?" The mechanic _cum_ weapon smith gave Sephiroth a long appraising look. "What'cha lookin' fer?"

Sephiroth frowned at the man's sudden adoption of a thick underplate brogue, it was probably a test to trip him up or make him feel isolated after his easy acceptance of Cloud. Sephiroth held his head up and looked the big man straight in the eye, determined not to let it show that the rebuff bothered him. "I've been using a broadsword, but I am familiar with a wide range of weapons. I'm sure whatever you have in stock will do."

"After seeing that crap ShinRa issues I'm sure a cracked log will do," The man laughed harshly. Even Cloud smiled, a small polite thing lacking the warmth of the one earlier. Sephiroth tried not to stare. He had seen more expressions cross Cloud's face in the past hour then since the man had first arrived at the ShinRa Headquarters, a month ago by all reports.

"Do you have any katana?" Cloud asked. "A longer blade preferably if you have any odachi."

"Well, it ain't the Masamune. But I do have this one…. Where did I put it?" The man trailed off as he rummaged around the various stacked crated and leaning pole arms. "Here it is. Ashura."

Sephiroth wasn't expecting much from the grease stained sailcloth, but the sound of pure reverence in the weapon smith's voice gave him pause. The revealed blade was straight and long with a slight curve at the tip, probably to make it easier for the long blade to clear the scabbard. The scabbard was plain unvarnished wood that did not match the gold washed silk wrapped around the hilt.

"Let's take it outside. Give the boy some room to swing it, see how he likes her," the man suggested. He waved them to follow him back through the storefront. Once outside Sephiroth placed the sword in his uniform's harness, it took a moment to adjust the frog for the thinner blade. He drew the sword and stood with it in his hands unsure what to do with it. Sephiroth made a few passes, the blade felt too long and too light. Warm calloused hands were over his, adjusting his grip. Cloud's voice was soft and low, his breath ghosting across the shell of Sephiroth's ear.

"This is a katana, not a broadsword. The balance is different so the hand positions are different. Right hand, lower on the hilt, guides the blade. Left hand here behind the tsuba, the hand guard, acts as the fulcrum. Push with one hand, pull with the other to control the blade. Push and pull." The long blade danced as Cloud manipulated Sephiroth's hands, the tip weaving uncertainly at first and then cutting strong wide arcs through the air as Sephiroth gained more confidence. Sephiroth was surprised that Cloud knew so much about a style that was obviously not his chosen great sword. All SOLDIERs were supposed to be trained in the basics for each broad weapon category, but ShinRa didn't spend much time on Wusheng style weapons and Sephiroth hadn't picked up a katana since he was a child. Cloud stepped back to stand next to the weapon smith. "Now, go through the fifth form."

Sephiroth nodded and re-sheathed Ashura. He took a moment to center himself and run the form through his head. ShinRa training consisted of a series of set forms to instill muscle memory through sheer repetition. The fifth was the first of the sword forms consisting of all the basic strikes and blocks performed in a tight configuration that could be done in even the smallest of training rooms. He began by drawing the sword directly into a forward strike, paused to adjust his grip to match what Cloud had demonstrated just a moment before, then continued with a block forward, pull back, look left, turn and strike. The sword was lighter and more responsive then the heavy ShinRa broadsword. Strike forward for two steps high then low, blocking retreat for one, about face, upper block. He worried that the blade was too light, but it felt good in his hands. Almost alive. Strike forward high then low, blocking retreat, face front once again, forward lunge, stand, sharp flick, sheath, and back to parade rest.

"He'll take it," Cloud said. They all trooped inside. Sephiroth removed the sword from his harness but was reluctant to hand it back. Cloud mutely handed him the Materia beads that had been removed from the ShinRa broadsword, before settling into haggling over the price with the weapon smith. They alternately praised and insulted the sword, ShinRa, the economy, and each other until the price agreed upon was merely astronomical, not lifetime membership to the Gold Saucer for half of Midgar. Sephiroth fingered the Material slots, two linked pair was now filled with his refined Fira and a half-mastered Restore that he got back from Cloud. Sephiroth wondered how he could hope to even start repaying him for the sword.

"Think you guys can watch my bike?" Cloud asked. "I'm taking Sephiroth out to the train graveyard for some practice."

"You SOLDIER boys are nuts," the old man behind the counter shook his head, speaking for the first time since they entered the store. "That place isn't a playground."

"Just depends on the games you're playing," Cloud replied. "Can you?"

"Don't worry. We'll make sure no one walks off with your bike," the weapon smith said. Cloud raised one eyebrow and the other man quickly amended. "We'll make sure no one gets hurt trying to walk off with your bike."

Cloud nodded approvingly and walked out of the shop. Sephiroth followed, new sword at his back. He wasn't going to ask. The commanding office give out information on an as needed basis, it didn't matter that curiosity was eating him alive. They wound their way down narrow streets to the nearby train station. This was the last stop for most of the major lines. Sephiroth could see rows of empty tracks where the cars would be put up for the night and a wye for the trains to turn around. Beyond that was… the train graveyard. It was the only thing that he could think of to describe the banks of rusting husks scattered haphazardly across the open ground.

"What is this place?" The question slipped out before Sephiroth could stop it. Cloud turned to look at him. "Sorry, sir"

"If you don't ask you won't know."

The statement was so counter to everything that the ShinRa military was built on it actually took Sephiroth a few moments to pause and process that, yes Cloud did actually say that. Sephiroth wondered if this was some kind of test. "Information is the prerogative of the Company and the commanding officer to disclose as needed to ensure mission success with minimal chance of compromise."

"Sephiroth." Cloud's tone was soft and a little chiding. He frowned disapprovingly, but paused for a long moment to think carefully before speaking. "Some… individuals may choose to withhold key information. You are the one who takes ultimate responsibility for your actions. Not your commanding officer." Cloud hesitated a moment before adding, "And not the Company. Now, what information do you need to further this mission?"

Sephiroth considered what he knew of the situation. It was a training exercise to an unknown area. It may have been unknown to him, but presumably not to Cloud since he commented earlier that he 'started out' in the slums. Which was odd, Cloud's accent didn't place him as Midvolk. Sephiroth tucked that away for later consideration and focused on the task at hand. "I would need to know the layout of the area, any known monsters, their stats, strengths and weaknesses, how long the exercise is expected to take, and if there are any set conditions for success or failure."

Cloud nodded. Instead addressing the issues Sephiroth listed he asked another question. "What sources do you have available?"

"I have you," Sephiroth paused, given Cloud's still blank expression he was clearly expecting more. "I can ask the locals. Many people living in the slums are distrustful of ShinRa, but the proprietor and smith back at the weapon shop would probably talk to me. Some ShinRa employees are from the slums, I could probably ask them as well."

"Where are the points of weakness? In what ways can an outside party, that is anyone other than you, sabotage the mission?"

Sephiroth frowned. "Don't you mean anyone other than us?"

"I could've been compromised," Cloud said with a shrug. "I could have my own agenda. You can only be certain of yourself. Everyone else is a potentially unknown." Cloud gave a small, bitter smile. "And sometimes even your own mind can be unknown."

"Sir?"

Cloud shook his head. "Never mind, answer the question."

"Yes, sir." Sephiroth considered. "As stated you could have been compromised by an outside source, or have your own agenda, which could also apply to anyone else in the company. Someone from the slums may deliberately give out false information to spite ShinRa," Sephiroth hesitated. "How would you know?"

"Simple," Cloud said. "More information. You ask as many people as you can, you ask them multiple times. You compare the information. Is it consistent? Is anything odd, or misplaced? Consistent information is more likely to be true. A well established fabrication can be difficult to pierce, but even the best liars make mistakes."

"That can take a lot of time," Sephiroth said thoughtfully.

"Yes, it can. And you won't always have the time to gather all of the information you might need. You need to learn what you can in the time you have and act accordingly."

"Are we going to do all of that?" Sephiroth tried to cover his distaste at the prospect, apparently not as successfully as he would have liked. Cloud gave him a wry look.

"I forget again, what does SOLDIER stand for?"

After a beat Sephiroth realized that Cloud was not attempting to be humorous. "Special Operations: Logistics, Demolitions, Infiltration, Extraction and Reconnaissance."

"Ah, good you do remember that part," Cloud said. "We won't do anything today, but I want you to be aware of the possibilities."

"Yes, sir."

"The train graveyard has no set layout. As cars are damaged or become obsolete they are piled up on top of the older ones. The area is filled with ghosts and deenglows. I'm not expecting us to run into anything ranked above a 10. Ghosts are weak to fire, but I want to see you focus on your sword work so I am limiting you to one use of ether."

Sephiroth tried not to feel too disappointed. One of the things his other First Class superiors always commented on was his affinity with Materia, and he had been looking forward to showing off to Cloud.

"I do have a phoenix down, if you make me use it and it will be considered mission failure." Sephiroth let a small smirk play across his lips to match Clouds wry humor, even a trooper should be able to get in and out past some level 10s with little problem. "The mission is over when I say it is. Do you have your PHS set?"

"Um, no," Sephiroth flushed guiltily. He quickly fished out his PHS from his pocket and quickly searched for Cloud's name from the archive and added it to his Active Party list. This was one of the first things pounded into cadets in basic; set your party in the PHS to keep track of your teammates' status and location. He tried to write it off as being sent on mostly solo missions since basic, but he knew that he simply forgot and something like that was inexcusable. What if Cloud got poisoned or some other status effect that was not readily apparent, he'd never be able to tell, and if Cloud got hurt- Sephiroth felt his eyes widen as Cloud's stats were downloaded. He'd heard rumors that when they tested Cloud they had to bank, manually write down the numbers and clear the counter, twice but that was... a lot of nines. Sephiroth doubted that there was _anything_ that could give Cloud much trouble.

"Ready?" Sephiroth jumped and snapped shut his PHS and nodded. "Let's get started then."

"Yes, sir!" Sephiroth sketched a sharp salute and followed Cloud across the tracks and into the train graveyard.

… … …

Sephiroth wiped the sweat from his face with a quick swipe with the back of a gloved hand while he waited for one of the two ghosts to phase back in. He'd gotten hit a few times, but mostly he was tired. Cloud kept them moving, traversing the train graveyard back and forth, through the strange labyrinth of wrecked train cars and twisted metal girders. He did find two additional ethers, one in a rusty barrel and another under the seat of a car they were passing through. Cloud decreed them outside of his one ether limit since they were found on site. Sephiroth was still holding off on using them, he wanted to make the mission under the set guidelines. But, stars, he wanted that ether.

Cloud was doing fine, better then Sephiroth, even though he'd take more hits. He had some kind of skill Materia that let him cut in front of the opponents attack. He'd already taken more than one hit meant for Sephiroth. At first Sephiroth resented that the other SOLDIER didn't think he could take it. But after hour upon hour of walking and fighting, he finally realized that he couldn't. Not at the same level that Cloud could. And Cloud brought him out here to watch him _fight_ not take hits. Sephiroth focused on his fighting, on developing strategies to deal the most damage while conserving his limited resources, and left Cloud to make what he could of it.

Both of the ghosts finally phased back in, he hit one and Cloud got the other. They were nearing their entry point, again. Sephiroth was half hoping Cloud would call it quits this time. He was tired and this was starting to actually be boring. That was when the sharp blow blindsided him.

Dancing back away from Cloud, Sephiroth wasn't sure whether he should go for his PHS first or that ether so he could cast Cure. His questing right hand found the PHS first, he didn't want to look away from Cloud, especially knowing how fast the First Class could move, but he needed to check Cloud's status. He held Ashura out in a cross body block, but with the one handed grasp it could easily be knocked out of his hand, and Cloud had to have recovered from that strike by now. He was waiting for something. Taking the chance, Sephiroth glanced down at his PHS. Status was clear, which means…Cloud was testing him. Sephiroth tucked the PHS away, back into his pocket, and tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly dry. There was no way he was going to survive a fight against Cloud, not now.

Theoretically, SOLDIERs were all the same. Even a Third Class could take on a First Class and hold his own, the Classes just meant the types of missions and security levels that the SOLDIER could be trusted with. In more practical terms, there was still a world of difference in experience and skill. Plus, it's well known that Hojo liked to 'tweak' his 'specimens.' Sephiroth may have been built to be the best, but Cloud was a complete unknown.

Unknown.

Shit. Cloud even told him.

Everyone has their own agenda.

Sephiroth was going to die, really die. The best he could do right now was make as big an explosion as possible to get someone else's attention. The last blow pushed had pushed him past his limits. He'd been holding the break to check his PHS, but he didn't think that Cloud would give him the opportunity take that ether. This was the best shot, the only shot he had.

"Shadow Flare." Sephiroth released the limit break and darkness flowed out of him, forming glimmering spheres that converging on Cloud. Cloud braced himself with that monster sword planted deeply into the packed dirt. Sephiroth quickly downed the two ethers. The second one was probably more then he needed, but right then he didn't care about the waste. Sephiroth was able to get one cure cast before Cloud recovered from the barrage, and then he was fighting for his life.

He wondered if this was what his opponents, hand picked by Hojo to show him in his best light, felt like. Faced with this unstoppable force that you knew even the best you had would just delay the inevitable. Cloud's blade danced and morphed, one moment a wide pane hurdling towards him, and the next a fine light blade that made the air sing.

Ashura was heaven sent. Light enough to move as easily as thought, strong enough to turn aside even the most powerful of blows, and long enough to give him some _fucking_ space. Sephiroth's lips pulled back in a snarling grimace. How, _why_, would a man with a sword that big push in that close?

Sephiroth pushed back to get some breathing space and poured his will into the Fira. Refined Materia was supposed to level faster and hit harder, but it was also more fragile and he felt more then heard the bead crack under the pressure. Fire exploded.

The ends of Sephiroth's hair singed and the flames curled about him. He squinted through the light to see Cloud glaring at him across the open space, hate and anger etched into his normally expressionless features. But Cloud could do nothing; there was a wall of fire between them that neither could breach. At first, Sephiroth thought the dimming light around the edges meant that the fire was dying down. He quickly realized that, no, that was due to him passing out

… … …

AN: First of all I would like to thank Mushi for betaing this, without her this story would have many more errors.

If any of you find the opening familiar and are wondering what happened to the rest of it, you may be familiar with the version posted as a fill to the FFVII Kink Meme (links in my profile). This is the extended version including extra scenes that had been cut out for the fill. It will include the rest and more in future chapters.


	2. Chapter 2

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 2

… … …

Sephiroth first became aware of machines beeping in the background. He felt muzzy and thick with painkillers and Mako and other things that he probably didn't want to think about. He could hear Hojo muttering unintelligibly in the background. His brain gradually filled in how he got there starting with fire and working its way backwards. As he considered the entire 'mission' Sephiroth began to doubt his assessment of Cloud's attack.

If Cloud really wanted to kill, him Sephiroth had no doubt that he could have done so at any time, from when he first cornered Sephiroth in the ShinRa Tower, or when he took Sephiroth's weapon in the garage. Shiva, _that_ was stupid, just handing over his only weapon. Not to mention at any time in the train graveyard itself. And Cloud went out of his way to _arm_ Sephiroth with a weapon, a really good weapon.

A really good weapon that just had a Materia bead _shatter_ in one of its slots.

Sephiroth struggled to sit up, but he was fighting drugs and, Sephiroth gasped under the sudden weight, orderlies holding him down. He glanced around, looking for the sword. Hojo looked up, and adjusted his glasses. "Quit struggling, boy. There are no enemies here."

"Ashura," Sephiroth gasped out, as one of the orderly's elbow pressed into his diaphragm.

"What was that?" Hojo asked, coming around the desk to lean over Sephiroth.

"My sword, Ashura," Sephiroth said, finally able to do more than gasp when Hojo waived the orderlies off of him. "Where is it?"

"Who cares about some hunk of metal?" Hojo asked in a peevish tone. "What were you doing out in Sector Seven anyway? You had no missions scheduled."

"It was a," Sephiroth hesitated. Whatever he told Hojo there would be consequences, grave consequences for him or Cloud, or both. As head of the Science Department, Hojo held a lot of sway over the company if he really wanted to put some effort into it. Cloud's protection as an employee of a subsidiary company was tenuous at best, and Sephiroth didn't have any protection at all from Hojo whims. He never had. Fortunately Hojo was also inherently lazy, and he usually didn't step outside of his bounds unless goaded. Sephiroth's mind wandered to his earlier discussion with Cloud, about people lying or withholding information. Here was an opportunity. He knew it. He could taste it, but what did he want to do with it?

"Well?" Hojo snapped. "I'm waiting."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Sephiroth said, falling back on the habits of a lifetime in the labs: don't admit to anything they can't prove. "It was a training exercise."

Hojo's eyes narrowed and he adjusted his glasses again. It was a habit of Hojo's that made Sephiroth nervous. It meant that he was thinking, considering, weighing his options, and it usually meant that one of his pet projects was going to be in pain soon. "You didn't have any missions scheduled."

"It wasn't a scheduled mission," Sephiroth said. "I was on my free time, trying to improve my skills, when the Fira Materia shattered."

"Hmph, substandard Materia from a substandard department," Hojo muttered under his breath. "Don't use the fused Materia. It's not strong enough to handle your levels of power. Keep to naturally formed Materia or standard manufacture. What of Strife?"

"What of him?" Following Hojo's abrupt turns of thought was difficult on occasion, but Sephiroth was used to it, and had been both dreading and anticipating this question since he woke up.

"You were seen leaving together, and SPs responding to the explosions found him standing over you." Hojo did not look to be happy at disclosing the information. Of course, he was rarely happy when he wasn't gloating.

Sephiroth considered the possibly answers. He wasn't entirely sure that Cloud had really been trying to kill him, but then, given that look of pure hatred after the Fira broke out, Sephiroth wasn't entirely sure that Cloud had _not_ been trying to kill him either. Sephiroth needed more information, and prematurely setting Hojo on anyone wasn't going to help clear up his confusion. "Strife was also off the clock. He was familiar with Midgar and suggested a training session in the slums."

"You should stay away from him," Hojo said sharply before muttering under his breath. "Worthless, substandard byproduct…"

"I don't think I can," Sephiroth said, as neutrally as he could. Just being told that he couldn't made him want to see the other man again. Even if Cloud was trying to kill him.

Hojo's head snapped up. "What? Don't think you can disobey me, boy."

"Both Strife and I are members of SOLDIER and may be required to work together in the best interests of the Company," Sephiroth said with as cool an affectation as he could manage. Hojo usually responded best to that tone. "Avoiding him may cause undue conflict and division within the ranks of SOLDIER."

"You don't need to work _with_ anyone," Hojo huffed. "You are perfection, miles above the rest of that dross."

"But I am only Second Class," Sephiroth said "All Second Class need to be able to work in tandem with First Class as well as support from lesser troops."

That was a mistake, Hojo scowled. "Second Class. Perfection regulated to Second Class. You should have been First Class from the moment we deigned to grace their pathetic military with your presence."

Sephiroth scrambled to find some excuse to throw at Hojo as he degenerated into mumbled ravings while still maintaining the semblance of cool logic. "Of course it is only a matter of time before they realize their error, and Cloud is currently the best First Class SOLDIER. If I am to work with anyone, it would only be logical that ShinRa pair me with their best First Class, even they can see that."

Hojo gave him a long look, but eventually bowed to the subtle stressing of 'best'. His prize SOLDIER deserved nothing but the best. He patted Sephiroth's leg in an absently affectionate gesture. "Hmm, perhaps. You may be right. Just try not to associate too much with failures like Strife or Hollander's boys. They will only bring you down. Sully you in the eyes of everyone else."

Hojo trailed off and picked up a clipboard, absently checking things from some obscure list. Sephiroth knew that "Hollander's boys" referred to Genesis and Angeal. He wondered, not for the first time, what any of them did in particular to earn Hojo's vitriol.

"Professor?" Sephiroth asked, sometimes when he was sufficiently distracted Hojo would agree to something without realizing what he was agreeing to, and the best part was once he had agreed he would rarely take it back, no matter how much he didn't like it, because he didn't want to look like he was wrong or had made a mistake. "May I be released to the barracks?"

"Hm? I'd rather keep you here for observation." Sephiroth's heart sank. "But it is mostly just exhaustion. I suppose it doesn't matter if you sleep it off here or there."

"Thank you, sir." Sephiroth began removing the various monitors before Hojo could rescind his offer. Because sometimes, when there were no other witnesses, he would.

Hojo cleared his throat, the sound somehow carrying over the screeching alarms, and gave him a reproachful look. "What do you say?"

Sephiroth clenched his teeth, but then some things were almost worse than staying in the medical ward all night. "Thank you, Father."

Hojo nodded and flicked off the shrieking machines. Sephiroth made his escape, and, like hell, was he going to the barracks to crash. First stop was the information desk.2

Actually the first stop was still the barracks, to shower and change. His bunk was terribly tempting, hard as a rock with course, stiff sheets, itchy wool blanket and all. Sephiroth somehow managed to resist its siren lure and made his way down to the Information Desk. It took the lady a few moments to find Cloud's bunk number, mostly because Cloud didn't have a bunk number. The 'WolfHaven party' was being housed off site, some hotel in Sector Eight. About the only thing Sephiroth knew about Sector Eight was a theater he overheard Genesis talking about.

The hotel was a little intimidating in its ostentatiousness. Sephiroth wondered if the WolfHaven Group was trying to intimidate ShinRa or in the ShinRa Corporation was trying to intimidate WolfHaven. Either way, it was working on him. He could feel his palms start to sweat as he made his way to the suite that Cloud was staying in. Sephiroth knocked on the door. Even the door was intimidating. It was made of rich wood with gilt inlay and had elaborate curlicues twisting along the edges and swirling in the corners.

He felt the urge to shift from foot to foot, but forced himself to stand rock still in parade rest. Doubts twisted around in his head. Had Cloud really tried to kill him? Shouldn't he wait until they were both on neutral ground? Maybe he should have gone to bed as Hojo suggested, at least then he wouldn't have this exhaustion dogging his heels. No one had answered the door yet, was Cloud even here? Maybe he had the wrong room. Should he knock again?

Just as he raised a fist to knock a second time, the door was snatched open and a young lady of Wusheng descent was standing on the other side. She flinched back from his upraised hand. Sephiroth quickly lowered it and opened his mouth to apologize. But before he could speak she got her first good look at him and _shrieked_. "Cloud!"

The young woman stayed in the doorway, blocking his entrance, shouting in Wusheng and her other hand was fumbling for what he could only imagine would be weapons placed strategically nearby. Sephiroth was torn between holding his ground and fleeing. For either case he wished that he had the foresight to grab one of the SRSI broadswords before leaving the ShinRa Complex. So, it was with no small relief to Sephiroth, when Cloud appeared at the door to save… either Sephiroth from the crazy shrieking lady, or the lady from him, Sephiroth _didn't care_.

Cloud wedged himself between the two of them. Sephiroth wondered if that Cover Materia was a permanent effect, he did it so effortlessly. "Yuffie, go make yourself scarce."

"What?" Crazy Shrieking Lady, Yuffie, shrieked. Cloud just gave her a hard look over his shoulder. She shot glares at the both of them, yanked on a tuft of Cloud's blond hair and he let her pull him down. "You are so going to owe me for this."

"I know." Cloud sighed, but the sound was more affectionately exasperated than anything else.

She let go of Cloud's hair and stalked off into the depths of their hotel suite. "I mean huge… I want your whole Materia stash… one of everything…_three_ of everything…."

With Yuffie finally out of earshot, the silence stretched on uncomfortably long as the two SOLDIERs stared at each other across the threshold, each trying to take the measure of the other. Cloud stepped back. "Would you like to come in?"

Sephiroth rather thought he'd still like to run, but he didn't want to look like a coward. Not in front of Cloud. _Even if the man, maybe, tried to kill you?_ A small voice asked in the back of his head. Sephiroth quashed it ruthlessly. Even if Cloud had tried to kill him, the last thing he needed right now was to show fear or weakness. Sephiroth stepped into the foyer. "Thank you. Was that one of your WolfHaven coworkers?"

"That was," Cloud paused, considering his words before ending with, "Yuffie. She's a friend. And, yes, with the WolfHaven project."

Not girlfriend Sephiroth noticed. He also notice the way that she wasn't a co-worker either but 'with the project.' That usually meant subject. It didn't seem like they were treated too badly, but then even Hojo didn't break out the Mako tubes and cages on the first date.

"Here, I imagine you've been looking for this," Cloud said turning to the nearby weapons rack. A giant shurikan had been knocked to the floor. Cloud replaced it back on the hooks and lifted the plain scabbard of a long sword.

"Ashura," Sephiroth said with some relief as Cloud handed him the blade.

"I've already taken care of the blade," Cloud said. "It's been cleaned and sharpened for you."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said, a little puzzled. "That wasn't necessary."

Cloud looked at him sharply. "I thought they covered weapon care in basic."

Sephiroth shrugged. They covered how to load and unload a rifle, oil moving parts. A sword was a single piece of metal. What kind of care could it need? Sure, he'd seen sword buffs like Angeal and Cloud fussing over their weapons, but that was just for show wasn't it? His silence must have spoken volumes to Cloud who actually covered his eyes with one hand and muttered something disparaging in a harsh, guttural language. A language that was not the Wusheng the girl was shouting earlier, though Sephiroth couldn't place it. Cloud waved for Sephiroth to follow him into the sitting room.

Even in here there were weapons laid out. Some of them were decorative works of art that did not look out of place in the richly furnished room. Others were plainer and purely functional. All showed signs of heavy use. Sweat stained the leather and cloth hilts, the edges were sharp and keen. From a nearby table Cloud pointed at a spread of blocks all made of different materials, cloths and oil laid out like a craftsman's tools. Most of it looked vaguely familiar from watching Angeal care for his Buster sword, which he did everyday despite the teasing and numerous innuendos that he endured.

"A well cared for weapon will serve you for years to come," Cloud said as he explained the various tools and how to use it from sharpening to rust removal, for everyday use and long term storage. His words may have been meant as an offhand remark but something in it _resonated_ with Sephiroth to the core of his being.

He carefully examined the sword in his hands. The blade was as Cloud had promised, sharp and well cared for. His Restore was still in place. Mournfully he touched the slot where the Fira had been. It was reduced to melted slag, while its partner remained untouched. He shuddered to think of what would have happened if he'd had the Fira linked to anything. Sephiroth glanced up to find Cloud watching him. Cloud's face had resumed its usual expressionless mask.

Sephiroth was at a loss on how to proceed. He had been thinking that if Cloud really was trying to kill him, Cloud would keep trying to kill him. But Cloud wasn't. He was just acting like Sephiroth's mentor and nothing more. Perhaps Cloud was being cautious, _if_ he was trying to kill him. Sephiroth still could have misread the situation entirely.

The constant back and forth was unsettling. Sephiroth wasn't used to this uncertainty. Things were the way they were. He needed more information. Sephiroth considered his first lesson with Cloud._ 'What sources are available? How can they be compromised?'_ Cloud was the only possible source to answer this question, but if he really was an enemy of ShinRa he would lie and say he wasn't, that he hadn't been trying to kill Sephiroth and bide his time until he was presented with another opportunity.

If Cloud was innocent, Sephiroth was uncertain how he could prove it. Even asking may antagonize him. Sephiroth felt his stomach clench at the thought. As horrible as he felt with the idea that Cloud was an enemy that he may have to kill, he could deal with that. He had been through the necessary mental training for dealing with traitors and spies. But the thought that he might do something to alienate the other man made him feel uneasy. He didn't know for certain if Cloud was a friend or an enemy, but he wanted to keep him close… until the puzzle was solved. So the best option was not to ask. To continue as if nothing was wrong, evaluate Cloud's actions, but keep aware of the possibility.

The internal debate took only moments, though in the growing tension in the room even that seemed like forever. With an overall strategy in mind Sephiroth took a shaky breath and tried a weak smile. "So, was the training mission a bust?"

"Phoenix down was used," Cloud said after a moment of consideration.

"Hojo said the Materia was faulty," Sephiroth protested.

Cloud shook his head. "There was nothing wrong with the Materia. You put in more power then it could take."

"Hojo said that naturally formed Materia wouldn't do that."

"Hojo, is not always right," Cloud snapped, sounding genuinely angry. "Even natural Materia has a limit. _You_ need to learn control."

Sephiroth frowned; he had never had someone tell him that what he was doing wasn't perfect. Especially when it came to Materia, he just picked up the beads and the magic flowed as naturally as breathing. Sephiroth found that he didn't care for the criticism, knife sharp and damning. "My control is fine."

"Really?" Cloud asked, drawing the word out. "Have you taken a look at Ashura's scabbard?"

"What?" Sephiroth looked down to find that the wood had twisted and cracked in his hands and he hadn't even realized it. "I…"

"I'm sure it's mostly just exhaustion," Cloud said. "I'll look into getting a replacement scabbard for you and come by tomorrow to discuss our… training regimen."

"No," Sephiroth said stubbornly. Everyone always treated him as some prized pet trained to do tricks and nothing else, he didn't want to get it from Cloud either."Ashura is my sword. I will replace the sheath that I broke. And we will start now."

"You are not-" Cloud paused a moment before sighing and turning away, tossing his hands up in a gesture of defeat. "Alright, fine. Have a seat."

Sephiroth blinked at him. "What?"

"You want this conversation now, we will have it now." Cloud sat down on one of the straight back chairs and toed the other one towards Sephiroth a little. Sephiroth sat down gingerly, gripping Ashura tightly. "Why did you ask me to mentor you?"

"Does it really matter?" Sephiroth asked stiffly, looking down at the rug.

"Asking for a mentor implies that there is something that you think you need to improve," Cloud said. "But from what I have observed yesterday afternoon and this evening, while I can certainly see room for improvement, it also seems to me that you don't."

Sephiroth flinched. That was uncomfortably close to home. Continuous praise from Hojo and his First Class instructors had instilled a sense of innate superiority. He asked because, he needed to say something when Cloud cornered him, and that was the first thing that sprung to mind. Then he'd found that he liked spending time in the other man's company while in the train graveyard before the accident, which was not his fault. So, no, he didn't think that he needed to actually improve. He had honestly expected to blow Cloud away with his skills, that they could be regarded as friends and equals. To be told that he wasn't perfect… stung a little. A lot.

"And quite frankly," Cloud continued. "It's going to be impossible to teach you anything unless you really do want to learn."

"I do," Sephiroth protested, mostly because he didn't want Cloud to turn him away.

Cloud gave him a long measured look. "Okay, but if I think that for a moment you aren't taking this seriously, then it's over."

Sephiroth nodded vigorously. "Yes, sir."

"Good, now," Cloud said as he stood up once again. "Go home. Get some rest."

"I'm not tired, sir," Sephiroth protested. "I'm not weak."

Sephiroth wasn't sure what it was, but something in that quietly desperate plea caused Cloud to consent with a resigned sigh. "Alright, we'll start with something small, and you stop if you start to feel any burn out."

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth agreed, intending no such thing, and by the look Cloud shot him Cloud knew it too.

"Cast Cure," Cloud ordered pointing at the Restore in Ashura's remaining double slot. Sephiroth did as ordered and let the energies of the Cure spell wash over him, taking away that edge of tiredness. "That was Cure2, cast Cure."

"Aren't they the same?"

Cloud shook his head and gave him a look that Sephiroth could only describe as _'you should know this already.' _"Cure2 is a more powerful version of the Cure spell, able to heal more damage but at a greater cost to you. Right now I want you to cast the first Cure spell in the Materia."

"But, why?" Sephiroth asked, still not understanding the point of the exercise.

"Because part of what led to the explosion yesterday is that you just pour your energy into the Materia and count on it to draw what it needed for the most powerful spell available rather than controlling the strength of the spell yourself," Cloud lectured patiently, easing back into a parade rest as he spoke. He was surprisingly good at explaining things for someone who seemed so taciturn normally. "Not only does it waste your energy, but if you continue doing things that way you will have more problems with Materia shattering."

"Oh," Sephiroth said. Put that way, he felt a little stupid. He had never been called upon to cast a weaker spell. Usually people _wanted_ to see bigger and flashier, and they praised him for it. Sephiroth stared down at the warm green bead and realized that he had no clue how to even begin. He didn't want to appear weak or incompetent. Failure meant the labs and Mako showers until Hojo could _fix_ what was wrong with him. Then, he had to consider which made him look more like a moron, staring at the Materia and not casting the spell or asking for help… for clearer instruction. That was less humiliating, he decided. "How?"

"How- You just-," Cloud stuttered, obviously taken aback by the question. It made Sephiroth feel a little better about being lost. Surprise quickly faded to thoughtful as Cloud stood up and strode to a sideboard. He dug around in the deep drawers before finally coming up with a bangle and a green Materia. Cloud sat back down across from Sephiroth and held the bangle in his hands.

"Okay, we will do this together." Cloud's expression went distant as he concentrated on the Materia. "Extend your awareness into the Materia. Can you sense the available spells?"

Unsure of what exactly Cloud meant, Sephiroth stared down into the green bead on Ashura's hilt. The light shifted along the surface of the bead, making it look more like a drop of rich green liquid then stone. It felt like he could fall into the bead, fall forever into those green depths. He noticed that the there were lights in the Materia, not reflections from the lamps in the room, tiny stars that glowed with their own power. There were also shadows, places that stars could shine. No, not stars, he realized spells.

"I see them," he said in awe and surprise.

"You should be able to feel the strength of their pull. That's how much energy is required to fuel the spell." Sephiroth studied the two stars. He could see why Cloud described it as a 'pull' both spells were tugging at him, wanting to be cast; the one was stronger and more demanding. He could sense that it would also take more from him as well.

"Okay," Sephiroth said.

"Choose the spell that you want to use and give the Materia just enough energy to activate the spell." Cloud said, casting the spell from his Materia. The gentle light surrounded them, and Sephiroth felt the cleansing coolness of the Esuna that Cloud cast comb through him.

Sephiroth carefully focused on the lesser of the two stars and slowly fed it his energy, until light exploded around him and the Cure spell was cast. Sephiroth blinked up at Cloud, feeling a little euphoric and light headed at his success.

"Good," Cloud said. "You cast the correct spell. Now, you will need to work on bringing down your casting time, and not looking at your Materia while casting."

Sephiroth blushed. He felt like a green recruit again. He could normally cast without looking at his Materia. He was well versed in the importance of watching his enemies while spell casting least they choose that moment of distraction to attack, but this was a new way of casting that he was learning all over again. "Yes, sir."

"I'd suggest working on your blind casting first."

Sephiroth nodded. He flipped Ashura over in his hands so that even if he were to reflexively look down he wouldn't be able to see the Materia. He could sense the Materia, that wasn't the problem, but the individual spells were more difficult to distinguish. Sephiroth took the time to separate the two spells, before selecting the weaker Cure spell. His casting time was atrocious and he hated it, but practice was the only thing that would help with that. Sephiroth glanced over at Cloud, who was now leaning against the sideboard. Sephiroth hadn't even noticed him moving he was so absorbed in the spell casting. Cloud caught the glance and nodded briefly. "Again."

And again, and again, and again. Sephiroth lost count of how many times he cast the Cure spell, and the Cure2s that snagged him when he wasn't focused properly. Cloud never commented or criticized. He just stood as still and unmoving as if someone had cast Petrify, watching Sephiroth cast.

Sephiroth knew that he was physically healthy, with as much Cure being tossed around he had to have been, but there was a peculiar exhaustion that came with extended magic usage and Sephiroth found himself faltering. It was taking him longer and longer to cast. Not because he was having trouble isolating the correct spell but because it was more and more difficult to dredge up the energy to feed the spell.

Sephiroth's vision was starting to darken around the edges but he forced himself to keep working. He would not be weak. He was going to get his casting time with this new method back up to par. Sephiroth was dimly aware of the sword falling to the thick carpet with a dull thud and warm, strong hands catching him before he followed.


	3. Chapter 3

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 3

… … …

Sephiroth was slow to awaken on the best of mornings. This morning was particularly difficult as he found himself cocooned in soft warmth. Yawning widely, Sephiroth blinked open his eyes, surprised to realize that he wasn't in his bunk. The bedroom he was in was richly decorated in tastefully neutral golds and creams. There was a large sword almost like a double edged Buster sword with cut-outs down the length of it hanging on hooks opposite the bed, and a dagger the size of Sephiroth's forearm in crimson lacquer and gold on the bedside table next to a tray of tissues, and large white ceramic table lamp.

The room had several doors. There was a large double set that was closed, which Sephiroth presumed lead to the main room. He could see ceramic tiling beyond the one door that had been left open. Sephiroth slid out of the bed, grabbed his clothes that someone had removed the night before and left folded on the wingchair in the corner, and padded towards the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom he found that the hotel did provide a full range of complimentary soaps, towels and even brushes. The hot water was heavenly and did not go cold after five minutes, though Sephiroth did not allow himself to linger too long. By the time he got out his stomach was rumbling, reminding him that it had been a while since he had eaten anything substantial. He dressed quickly and left his hair down to dry rather than taking the time to braid it.

Sephiroth exited the ensuite, out the double doors, and followed the heady smell of coffee to a formal dining area. Cloud and the Wusheng girl were already seated at the table. Cloud had his hands curled around a large mug of coffee, his eyes nearly closed with just the barest hints of blue shining through blond lashes as he contemplated the dark liquid. The girl had her face practically buried into a bowl, a set of chopsticks sticking out an off kilter angle.

"We don't do much for breakfast," Cloud said softly. "Rice, miso, coffee. Help yourself."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said as he studied the sparse buffet.

The girl, Yuffie, lowered the bowl and rattled off an accusing question at Cloud but pointed her chopsticks at Sephiroth. He ignored her and prepared a bowl of rice the same way the ShinRa cafeteria prepared all hot grains, with milk and a heavy helping of sugar and cinnamon.

"It's complicated. Don't be rude," Cloud chided her. A cup of coffee completed Sephiroth's breakfast and he joined the others at a table that wouldn't look out of place in a ShinRa conference room.

"Are you going to actually work today?" Yuffie asked, trailing her chopsticks in lazy circles in the thin soup that made up her breakfast.

Cloud made a soft grunting noise that could have been a yes or a no.

"Because I got a great lead," she grinned wickedly and leaned forward. "Just guess how Don Corneo made all that money?"

"Prostitution, drugs, protection racket," Cloud promptly rattled off. Sephiroth ate his rice and tried to pretend that he wasn't there.

"How about gambling?" Cloud nodded. "How about gambling at the Gold Saucer?" Cloud's eyebrow quirked upwards. "How about a run of 23 wins all darkbirds unexpectedly coming up from behind to steal the wins? Every. Single. Time. Isn't that weird?" Sephiroth tried not to let a look of surprise show. While people have questioned the Gold Saucer's integrity regarding its chocobo races, it would never let an outsider pull one over on the house like that. Yuffie leaned back with a look of satisfaction. "Plus, we can't account for all the money. _Some_ say it's going to ShinRa. _I_ was going to the Gold Saucer to see what's what, so I thought you could try to pick up the money trail on this end of things."

Cloud made another one of those noncommittal noises before adding. "Set it up as a mission."

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Why bother? If we're going to do it anyways?"

"This way ShinRa pays for us to do what we were going to do anyways," Cloud said wryly.

Yuffie lit up. "Oh, right! Gil is good. Materia is better, but gil is good."

She drained her soup in one long pull and plunked the empty bowl on the table before getting up and circling the long way around the table to get to the door.

"Don't forget to add the WolfHaven security tags, so no one else grabs it," Cloud added when she was halfway around the room. She spun and stuck her tongue out at him before completing her circuit and darting out the door. Cloud raised his voice to yell after her, "and make sure you have a valid pass for the Gold Saucer."

"I have yours!" She yelled back.

"Is it current?"

There was a moment of silence before a string of what Sephiroth could only presume were Wusheng explicatives drifted back to them. Cloud smirked into his coffee.

Sephiroth filed the information away for future reference. He needed to figure out what exactly WolfHaven did. Rumor placed them here to compare Cloud to the standard SOLDIER program, but the discussion this morning made it sound like they had other things on their agenda.

"Sir, why didn't you stop me last night?" Sephiroth asked, thinking back on the way he worked himself to exhaustion.

Cloud flicked a glance at him. "Tried."

"Not very hard," Sephiroth said. "You're my superior officer, you could have made it an order, but you capitulated. Why?"

"Because you also need to know what your limits are," Cloud said. "Are you going to keep casting like that in a fight?"

"No," Sephiroth said.

"Would you have if you didn't know the consequences?"

Sephiroth couldn't imagine an enemy strong enough where he might be put in that situation. Then he looked at Cloud, remembering Cloud's stats and the panic he felt facing the other man across the open ground in the train graveyard. "Maybe," he grudgingly admitted.

"Good, lesson learned."

A companionable silence descended once again before Sephiroth decided to break it. "Do we have any lessons planned for today?"

"You still need to replace Ashura's scabbard," Cloud said thoughtfully. "I think we can make a reconnaissance mission of it."

"Sir?"

"There are at least three locations I can think of where you can replace or repair the scabbard. Find one using the resources you have available."

Sephiroth tried not to groan too loudly. "I suppose I can't just ask you?"

"No," Cloud said. "I do have some errands I need to run, so I can drop you off somewhere but beyond that you are on your own."

"But, that's impossible," Sephiroth protested. "I don't know even know where to begin."

"All reconnaissance missions start in the same place," Cloud said. "What do you need to know?"

"I need to know where to go to repair Ashura's scabbard," Sephiroth growled at the remnants of his breakfast but the cinnamon swirling in the warm milk paid him no mind.

"What resources do you have available?"

"I don't," Sephiroth protested. "I don't know anyone who would have that kind of information. Except you, and you won't tell me."

"If I didn't think you couldn't do it I wouldn't have assigned the mission. I know for a fact that there _are_ people that you know, who you could ask," Cloud said. "And, if push comes to shove you can ask complete strangers on the street. Eventually you'd find someone who knows something."

"That'd take forever." Sephiroth was really starting to hate that whine that was creeping into his voice.

"It's called legwork for a reason," Cloud said. He pushed the coffee mug away and stood up. "Where do you want to start?"

Sephiroth thought about it. The only one, beside Cloud, he knew that used a non-ShinRa issue sword was Angeal. But he also recalled Angeal saying he got the sword back home in Banora, which meant that he might not necessarily know any places in Midgar. Cloud also said that he knew 'for a fact' that there were people he could ask. The only people that he and Cloud knew mutually were the weapons smith and the sale clerk at the weapon/mechanic shop where Cloud bought Ashura. He looked Cloud in the eye and told him, "Sector Seven, the weapon shop under the plate."

Cloud nodded. "Why?"

"Ashura's scabbard does not match her hilt, the man would have had it replaced at some point," Sephiroth said.

"He could have received the sword that way," Cloud pointed out.

"True, but he deals in weapons, he would know other craftsman in the area one of them might be able to repair the scabbard or point me to someone who does."

"Alright then, Sector Seven it is," Cloud said. Cloud's Fusion Sword and Ashura were both on the rack by the door. Sephiroth had just finished adjusting the harness when Yuffie appeared out of the one of the far rooms and twined herself around Cloud.

"Cloud!" She cried out with a faux syrupy sweetness in her voice, as she wrapped her arms around him. "My light, my life, my bestest bud-."

"No," Cloud said, his face completely blank. Sephiroth was unsure whether he should feel sorry for the girl throwing herself at the unresponsive man or, irrationally, snarl at the girl for throwing herself at the unresponsive man.

Yuffie pouted. "But I didn't even ask yet."

Cloud let out a resigned sigh. "What?"

"I need to borrow about 30, no 40, no 50, yes, about 50,000 gil from you." She smiled sweetly as one hand slid down Cloud's hip.

"I don't have it. You can stop checking my pockets now."

"But," she sputtered. "I know you had it last week. I counted."

"Gone," he said bluntly. She pulled back and planted her hands on her hips.

"Well, that's just great," she said as she started to pace. "You know what this means, right? I'm going to have to get a sugar daddy. Whore myself out… are you even listening to me?"

"Hm," Cloud said, as he finished readjusting the straps on his harness. "Have fun." He motioned Sephiroth towards the door, mouthing the words 'Go, now.'

"'Have fun?'" she repeated, anything else was lost as they made their escape and closed the door on her tirade. They were halfway down the hall when her head popped out and she yelled. "And you can't even stick around while I yell at you properly." She slammed the door.

Sephiroth started to feel guilty and confused. If Cloud hadn't purchased Ashura for him, Yuffie would have the money she needed. And while she seemed… Sephiroth couldn't really say that she seemed 'nice' from the little time he'd spent around her she seemed excitable and annoying. She was still someone Cloud readily called a friend and it would make more sense for Cloud to give her the money for a mission then to him for no apparent reason. Sephiroth couldn't even explain it away as Cloud being his mentor, for all of five minutes. At the time he felt swept up in surprise of the situation, but now he had to wonder what Cloud's motive really was. It didn't fit in with either scenario of 'Cloud as Loyal ShinRa' or 'Cloud as Assassin.' Was there another option?

Cloud dropped him off at the weapon/mechanists shop as he had asked. Both the clerk and the smith were sitting behind the front counter. If they had been talking about anything they fell silent when he entered.

"Heard the sirens the other day," the smith greeted him taking a long pull on a strong smelling cigar. "You gonna live?"

"I'm fine." Sephiroth smiled politely.

"Good," the clerk growled, his accent got steadily thicker as he got more irritated. "The last thing we need is some ShinRa dying down here. We'd never have the end of it. You ain't lookin' fer more trouble are ya?"

"No, sir," Sephiroth said politely. "Actually Ashura's scabbard was damaged. I was wondering if you gentlemen might know of a place where I can get it mended."

The clerk muttered something disparaging under his breath about 'gentlemen' before saying clearly. "You can find anything in Wall Market."

The smith shook his head. "Theoretically, but wood is hard to come by under plate. For a katana, you'll want to try Little Wutai in Sector Three."

"Thank you," Sephiroth nodded and turned to leave.

"Oh, and boy," the smith added. "That's above the plate, ShinRa don't go under plate there unless you want them to be fishing your body out of the sewers in Sector Four."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sephiroth said. Even though the brief discussion didn't take more than a moment, Cloud was long gone. Sephiroth couldn't even hear Fenrir's engine in the distance. He started walking towards the train station and considered his options, Sector Six's Wall Market or Sector Three's Little Wutai.

Sephiroth had heard some the barracks talk about Sector Six. Even SOLDIERs avoided going by themselves if they had a modicum of sense, but it was said that you could find things and pleasures that you couldn't get anywhere else, if you were willing to pay the right price. Little Wutai, the above plate portion at least, wouldn't be blatantly anti-ShinRa. He decided that he'd be better off with Sector Three. Sephiroth reached the station, checked the train schedules and headed for the platform of the nearest train going above plate.

Sephiroth had to take the long sword off of the harness in order to sit comfortably on the hard benches. It was midmorning and there were few people riding the trains, but the few that were there gave him odd looks for carrying the long weapon onto the train. Sephiroth ignored them and planted the tip of the sword against his boot as he stared out the window. It was going to be a long circuitous route to Sector Three.

Given that all he could do was wait Sephiroth found his mind drifting. _'A well cared for weapon will serve you for years to come' _Cloud had said. A well cared for weapon. ShinRa and Hojo talked about weapons as tools to be used and discarded. Cloud described weapons as tools as well, to be cared for and put away. So few people at ShinRa spoke of tools as something to be treasured.

Angeal was the only other person Sephiroth could think of offhand to do so, but his massive Buster Sword wasn't really a weapon. He never used it, preferring his fists or the standard issue to the heavy great sword. Does he even count? While Angeal may lavish care and attention on the Buster Sword, the other weapons never received the same level of care.

On the other side of the spectrum Hojo in particular blamed the tools if they broke, for being faulty or weak, and often throwing them in fits, tossing the broken pieces across the room. Cloud had said that if a tool breaks it is usually the fault of the man using the tool for not taking proper care of it.

Sephiroth let his fingers trail over the melted Materia slot and the cracked edges along Ashura's scabbard. Sephiroth wished now that he'd thought to ask about the ShinRa sword, about when the weapon was faulty. But he could imagine Cloud's cool voice anyways, saying, _'Then it's your fault for choosing a faulty weapon and applying to a task it could not do.' _ It was his fault that Ashura had been damaged, his fault that the Materia shattered.

But, he hadn't known any better. He had only done what he had been taught to do, trained to do like prized pet dog trained to attack. Like a weapon in ShinRa's hands and he'd seen how ShinRa treats its weapons. Sephiroth stared out the window at the passing cityscape and wished that he was anything but what he was, a weapon for ShinRa to use and break and toss away.

… … …

Little Wutai was a bright cheerful little corner of Midgar. There were still the towering buildings of grey steel and glass but on the street level the sidewalks were overrun with colorful banners, carts and people dressed in everything running the gamut from dour salarymen to ladies in full traditional Wutai regalia. And Sephiroth had no idea what to do next.

Everywhere he looked there was a stall selling something from food to clothes to Materia. The weapon smith had said Little Wutai, Sephiroth hadn't realized that Little Wutai was so big. It would take forever to comb every stall lining the broad roadway for a wooden scabbard. Belatedly he realized that it was never a good idea to look lost out in the city, it wasn't even a good idea to look lost in the ShinRa Complex for that matter. He put his head down and strode forward through the crowd.

A withered hand reached out and snagged his arm. Sephiroth twisted around out of the stranger's grasp and found himself glaring at an old man with a tray of some food dangling from a thick colorfully beaded strap around his shoulders.

"You look for somet'ing, hey?" The man asked. Sephiroth grimaced; apparently he was a little too slow to move. On the other hand Cloud did say that asking random people was a perfectly viable method of gathering intel.

"I'm looking for a craftsman to repair my sword's scabbard, do you know of any?" Sephiroth asked.

"Eh? Eh?" The man asked.

Sephiroth tapped Ashura's hilt and said. "Sword, need fix, where?"

The man lifted his tray. "Eh? Eh?"

Sephiroth stared down at the unidentifiable balls of something on a stick. "What is it?"

"Dango," the man said, clearly he understood the language even if he couldn't speak it well. "Num, num. Eh?"

What was equally clear was that Sephiroth wasn't going to get anywhere if he didn't buy something. "One."

"Five gil," the man held out a single stick with four balls on it. Sephiroth fished out a five gil piece out of his pocket and passed it over in exchange for the dango. "Eat, eat."

Sephiroth ate one, and wondered if it was poisoned. He wondered if he would be better off if it were because then this torturous mission would be over. The dango was slightly sweet, not bad and not what he was expecting. He looked at the smiling and nodding man. "Fix sword, where?"

"Mei-chen," the man said and pointed down the street then mimed turning left. "Mei-chen."

"Mei-chen," Sephiroth repeated, the man smiled and nodded and made a shooing motion with his hands. Sephiroth let himself be shuffled off and hoped that he wasn't just a sucker being passed along to the old man's friends. He finished of the dango. He was still a little hungry, the rice from breakfast and this little bit of sweet didn't really cut it. There were plenty of food stalls but Sephiroth wanted to complete the mission first before indulging himself.

He turned left at the first corner and found that the street beyond looked almost exactly like the street he just got off of. It didn't help that everything was in Wusheng. He could read the street signs, put up by the city, and that was about it. He turned towards the nearest stall, manned by a matronly woman in a garish red print dress dozing in the morning sun. "Excuse me, madam, I am looking for Mei-chen's."

She started and blinked up at him, startled and confused. "Eh?"

Sephiroth sighed and stared down at her wares. They were a multitude of little charms on string loops. Some were of popular cartoon characters, others were a jumble of beads, butterflies and flowers. He pointed at one, a bunch of molded feathers in silver or pewter and dotted with tiny plastic beads. "Two-five gil."

He paid her, she passed him the charm. It chimed pleasantly in her hand. Uncertain what to do with it, Sephiroth tied to a small decorative loop in Ashura's pommel. "Mei-chen's?"

"Oh! Mei-chen!" she smiled, and nodded, and pointed across the road.

He looked over and saw a food cart parked in front of a store front. Both were swathed in bright colors. He was hoping that the cart wasn't Mei-chen's and entered the store. Inside he was almost overwhelmed by the smell of sandalwood, glue, and other odd scents. The store was packed with a variety of pieces carved from wood from practical trunks and cabinets to artistic screens, fans, and statues. From the back of the store he heard a cheerful "Hello, hello!"

"Hello," he replied and made his way carefully through the narrow aisle to the counter. He placed the Ashura on the counter with the worst of damage facing upwards. "I need to replace the scabbard."

The woman tsked over the damage. They dickered back and forth over the various options. The one he could afford was a repair job on the existing scabbard. They hadn't been kidding when they said that wood was hard to come by, it wasn't just under plate. Every bit of it needed to be imported, from Kalm at the closest, for some of the more exotic woods even further out. And that made wood very, very expensive. Fortunately the existing wood wasn't totally destroyed. The woodcarver, known to Sephiroth only as a distant voice from the back room, was going to carve out the worst of the damage and replace it with inserts that were glued into place. It would take three days for the glue to set properly and he was going to have to leave Ashura in their care in the meantime. Not a pleasant prospect for Sephiroth.

After returned to the ShinRa Complex he found Cloud already in the training room, sitting in a meditative pose with the Fusion Sword laid out in all its various pieces around him. As the door hissed shut Cloud cracked an eye at him.

"I want you to go over every place you went, evaluate potential dangers and defensible positions."

"I thought the reconnaissance mission was just to find the store," Sephiroth protested, he hadn't even considered those things as he was out.

"These are things you should always be aware of." Cloud closed his eyes once again in his meditative pose. "Have a seat. I imagine this is going to take awhile."

He was right, it did. Sephiroth started off with the things that had jumped out at him at the time, like the old man and his dango, then they went on to drag out every excruciating detail of his morning. By the time they were finished Sephiroth was mentally exhausted. Most of his tactics training involved forts and troop movements. Why would anyone want to lay siege to a store? Infiltrate the train? Drop a _Sector Plate?_ Some of Cloud's scenarios were completely insane, but Sephiroth considered them and addressed each one, at length.

… … …

They fell into an irregular if comfortable pattern soon after that. Both of them had their separate missions from ShinRa, and in Cloud's case WolfHaven as well, which meant they couldn't meet as often as Sephiroth would have liked. The nature of some of Cloud's lessons troubled him through. He couldn't be sure if Cloud was trying to encourage Sephiroth in anti-ShinRa sentiment, or just make him think for himself.

Still, he was inclined to be cautious when it came to his mysterious mentor, so he made some discreet inquiries into the WolfHaven Group's projects but found very little solid information. ShinRa liked to keep up the appearance of independence between it and its subsidiaries. Any ShinRa employees accessing WolfHaven files needed to have a WolfHaven clearance level, which Sephiroth did not have. He did find out that WolfHaven was an offshoot of the Science Department established more than thirty years ago. Now it was the dumping ground for anyone that Hojo couldn't stand but were too well known to have disappeared, and he didn't have the grounds to fire.

Job transfers like that were generally considered to be a fate worse than death to the salarymen on ShinRa's Other Side. Someone being transferred out of ShinRa to one the lesser companies rarely made it back to ShinRa, and ShinRa was _the_ place to be. Sephiroth supposed that it was the equivalent of the military's indefinite guard duty; it was a punishment that wasn't supposed to actually look like a punishment. This little tidbit certainly helped to explain why Cloud always seemed to have such a negative reaction to Hojo. Until you took into account that neither Cloud nor Yuffie was ever a part of the parent company. Gossip and hurt feelings could only account for so much.

Sephiroth found himself at loose ends while Cloud was out on a ShinRa mission to Gongaga. At a spur of the moment decision Sephiroth snagged a couple of minor monster hunts in the Junon area and caught a ride on one of the regular airship ferries over the mountains. Before approaching WolfHaven directly he did some scouting around the area. Sephiroth located the small Company town of Aconite that provided housing, a general store and a few other necessities that an isolated community needed. Oblique questioning yielded little more information than he already knew.

One odd bit he discovered was that no one was allowed to build within a five mile radius of the WolfHaven site. ShinRa didn't even require minimum clear distance for their reactors anymore, so the prohibition struck him as very unusual. On the other hand, he was uncertain how reliable to classify the two non-Company locals happy to complain to him about anything and everything.

After he'd done all the necessary background work that he could think of, and he figured he wasn't going to learn anything new, Sephiroth decided to try to infiltrate the site directly. He was surprised at what he found. He figured that it wouldn't be a standard office building, being located fifteen miles north of Fort Condor literally in the middle of nowhere. But this was more of a bunker than anything else. The main building was a long steel construction that may have started out life as an airship hanger, there were a handful of smaller sheds scattered across the area, and a number of vehicles parked in uneven lines across the unmarked patch of dirt that served as their parking lot. The only thing that let Sephiroth even know that he was in the correct place was a stylized wolf's head silhouette on the side of the building with "WolfHaven Group" next to it in large black font that somehow managed to look foreboding with the sharp serif like jagged teeth.

Inside, however, it was coolly professional with an open welcome area, not unlike the ShinRa information desk, complete with a young woman flipping casually through a fashion magazine and fake plants. She didn't even look up as he entered, nor as he stepped up to her desk. Sephiroth cleared his throat.

Now she glanced up, and nearly leapt out of her skin to see someone standing there. "Sorry! Uh, Welcome to WolfHaven, how may I help you?"

"I was just passing through, I work with Cloud Strife and thought I'd do him a favor and drop by to see if anything needs to be picked up."

"Umm, right, what's your clearance level?"

"I'm not sure," Sephiroth said trying not to panic. Clearance levels at ShinRa didn't go into effect until you reached the upper levels of the hierarchy, but if she was asking at the front desk clearly WolfHaven was set up differently. He had hoped that dropping Cloud's name would get him in, somehow. As far as infiltrations went he hadn't had much of a plan, just go in and see what happens. Cloud would probably lecture him, and then drill him on proper procedures. The problem was very little was known about WolfHaven that Sephiroth could find, even after crawling around the countryside. So, he had to make do and hope for the best. "I work with Cloud primarily out of Midgar, it hadn't seemed important to follow up on the paperwork."

"Right. Name?"

"Sephiroth."

"Last name?"

After a moment of silence she shrugged and tapped the name into her computer. "I'm not finding you in the system." The computer beeped at her, and her eyes widened until he could see the white entirely around the iris. "Just wait here one moment. I'm going to contact Dr. Weber."

She disappeared into the back. Curious, Sephiroth glanced over the counter at her computer screen, but it had been locked and required a password. He debated sneaking into the building while she was away, but not knowing the layout of the building, or in fact anything about WolfHaven, that was just asking for trouble. Fortunately, the young lady returned with an older gentleman in a white lab coat before Sephiroth had time to rethink that decision and do something potentially stupid. More stupid.

Although the man wore a lab coat, he stood straight and walked with a smooth confidence that Sephiroth noticed more in warriors then in scientists. He still made Sephiroth's skin crawl, just being in a pristine lab coat, with Hojo and his assistants it was only a matter of time before the bleached linen was stained with blood, Mako, and other fluids. This scientist was an elderly man with deeply lined crowfeet at the corners of his eyes and deep creases across his brow, but not tugging down his lips. If it weren't for the coat, he'd come across more like a retired sergeant, then a man of science. He held out his hand. Sephiroth did not take it.

"Cloud's spoken so much about you. Denise said that you were here to pick up a package for him?" Sephiroth wondered how much Cloud told him, and if this Dr. Weber reveled in what he had done to Cloud the way Hojo gloried in his own creations.

"Since I was in the area I just thought I'd stop by as see if there was anything he might need from your office. ShinRa keeps him pretty busy," Sephiroth said, not letting any of his discomfort show in his expression. It was his cover story and he was going to repeat it like a mantra. If nothing else, Cloud's impromptu lessons on reconnaissance taught him what to look for in liars, and how to not look like one. He kept his tone even, his gaze fixed firmly on the other man and his hands down at his sides.

"Hm-hmm," the man hummed softly in affirmation, momentarily distracted by the sheaf of papers in his hands. "Good timing on your part actually. We do have a package for Cloud. We were going to wait for the regular courier, but since you're here you might as well take it now. Follow me, please."

The man led him into the depths of the building. There really wasn't much to it once you walked past the privacy screen blocking anything beyond from open view. The hanger- -and it was clearly a hanger- -was nothing but open space and concrete floor. It was what was in the midst of that space that brought Sephiroth to an abrupt halt.

There was a giant globe of darkness hanging in the center of the open area. At first he thought it was some Materia generated dark field, except the edges weren't sharp. It was like the light was twisting, bending, caught in the pull of the dark void. It looked familiar, but it took Sephiroth a moment to place it.

"Graviga?" He asked is stunned surprise. He had never seen the effect maintained for more than a few seconds, it was a devastating and draining attack, and he couldn't imagine what it took to maintain such a thing.

"Two kilo chunk of it," Dr. Weber confirmed, waving at a device containing the largest piece of weapon-grade Materia he had ever seen, carefully fed by clear tubes of glowing Mako. The five-mile building ban suddenly made more sense. Of course if the careful control on the stable gravity field ever failed Sephiroth wasn't entirely certain that five miles would be _enough_.

"Why?"

"Have we confirmed your clearance level yet?"


	4. Chapter 4

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 4

… … …

Sephiroth may have frozen at the sight of the sustained Graviga effect, but his heart stopped at the doctor's question.

"Cloud mentioned that he had put in a request," he said. He was having trouble reading from the man what the best answer would be, so he hedged. "I haven't heard anything since."

"Well, I'm sure that the paperwork is on my desk somewhere," he said, giving Sephiroth a sharp look. "We've been so busy with the new data stream coming through that I probably just haven't had time to sign off on it yet."

The man was lying. Sephiroth knew it. He knew it by the way the man wouldn't look at him except in quick glances, and the way he fiddled with his glasses, pushing them back up his nose, then edging them down a bit before pushing them back up again. He knew Sephiroth was lying, that there was no paperwork waiting anywhere, but he was going along with it. Why?

"This is the WolfHaven Project," Dr. Weber said. "A sustainable wormhole. You can tell it's an old project with outdated naming conventions."

"Pardon?" Sephiroth asked, uncertain what he was alluding to.

"I understand that ShinRa prefers to simply go with the letter format nowadays," Dr Weber said. "When the project was first started they would use something unrelated that contained key letters of the subject to use as a codename for the project. Wormhole; 'w,' 'h;' WolfHaven.

"We've finally got one that didn't just collapse in on itself after sucking up trillions of gil worth of equipment with it, and we've all been running around here like chickens with our collective heads cut off trying to organize and analyze the data. Come this way, the package I need to get to Cloud is in my office," he gestured and led him along the outside wall.

The wall was not part of the original hanger. It was simply some prefab materials slapped together and showing signs of wear in the chipped and peeling paint. Doors interrupted the plain expanse, some of them had labels with names or numbers, many of them were blank. As they passed one, the door popped open and a frazzled looking young lady appeared, pathetically grateful to see them, or at least Dr. Weber.

"Doctor! The new computer banks aren't coming on line and we…" she trailed off as someone from inside the room called and pulled her attention back.

"I'll be right there," he assured her before grabbing the arm of a freckled young man who was passing by. "Ah, Jens. Just who I needed to see."

"But, I need-," Jens protested, but the doctor cut him off.

"Sephiroth here, needs to pick up a package from my office, see that he gets there," Dr. Weber patted Jens on the arm. "His clearance hasn't been fully processed yet so try not to spill too many company secrets."

"These papers-," Jens tried to object again.

"Good, lad," Dr. Weber said, slapping Jens on the back with enough force that the boy staggered forward a step.

"But, I really can't…" Dr. Weber was already gone, ducking into the room that the young woman came from. Jens let out a deep sigh. "Well, come on then."

He turned around and started trudging along the path Dr. Weber had been taking him.

"Been very busy?" Sephiroth asked tentatively.

"Insanely," Jens said with roll of his eyes. "Ever since the wormhole was stabilized about three months ago we've been totally swamped."

"Analyzing the data?"

"The data's not so bad," Jens said. "The computers do most of the work. We just have to make sure we have enough hard drive space to take it all. It's when they send something else through that it gets interesting."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, see that bank of computers over there," Jens said pointing to a row of imposing supercomputers lit up with a multitude of red and green lights. "Fenrir totally took those out. I mean complete wipeout. Nearly got one of the lab techs too, but she used to work in Hojo's creature lab, well honed reflexes. I was doing the rounds when…" Jens was clearly warming to his story when his PHS rang. He swore, and answered it with a harried greeting.

"Where the hell are you?" a thin voice came from the other side of the connection. "I needed that report five minutes ago."

"Sorry, I got this…"

"Now, Jens!" The line was cut off with a loud crashing sound of the person on the other end of the line attempting to hang up but either bounced the receiver back off the cradle or missed it entirely, before finally disconnecting.

Jens gave Sephiroth an apologetic look. "Sorry, I've gotta get this to Dr. Kirsch." Jens said backing up he waved his hands in broad gestures. "Just keep going along the wall until you hit carpet, then stay there. You can't get into too much trouble being over there unsupervised."

Sephiroth nodded and the young man disappeared, breaking into a jog running back down the way Sephiroth had come. He turned and started towards the office area. He needed to find an unguarded computer terminal, but not here. People were busy and distracted, but even they would probably notice if he started to systematically go through each room and office. After another dozen feet a corridor interrupted the smooth expanse of wall. The narrow hall was carpeted with cheap blue wall-to-wall that was starting to wear through in the center of the walkway.

Sephiroth followed the carpeted hallway to a small waiting room with a couple of battered leather couches, an empty water cooler, and a coffee pot, the contents of which were better off unexamined. There were a few doors and narrow hallways led off into what he could only assume were more office lined warrens. Most of the doors he discovered were locked, requiring a keycard _and_ a passcode. Even ShinRa wasn't this paranoid. He did find one unlocked room, Video Room 3, the lock appeared to be broken and the door opened easily, inside the door was a sign in sheet asking for employee id, name, time in and time out. Jens was the last one to sign out at about five after three.

There was a row of small monitors each above a set of recording equipment and a bank of computers feeding them. Most of the monitors were set to different news feeds. He recognized the ShinRa News logo on a couple of them. A WRO World and Local News was featured prominently on several screens, Sephiroth decided that it had to be an independent station. One video that caught his eye appeared to be a recorded lecture, rather than a news broadcast.

What grabbed his attention was the camera panning over the audience caught Cloud sitting off to the side of an eclectic looking group, made up mostly of men in business suits but also fair number of uniformed soldiers of unknown factions and hardened men that Sephiroth could only label as mercenaries. As he watched the camera returned to the lecturer, a young man in a lab coat with a WRO logo on it. On the whiteboard behind him there was a smattering of letters, numbers and names both familiar and not. Jenova, Gast, Hojo, Hollander, Gillian, Lucretia, Genesis, Angeal, Zack F., and Cloud were all scrawled across the board. Sephiroth's own name was featured prominently in the center. He fumbled with the controls below the monitor before finding and turning up the volume on the silent video.

"There are some who have suggested that Nibelheim and Meteorfall occurred because of Jenova's control over Sephiroth." Sephiroth blinked in surprise at the screen, _what?_ The camera panned back to the audience pointing shakily at a man who looked eerily like ShinRa's New Director of Urban Development Reeve Tuesti, he even managed the same distracted rumpled look in his tailored suit. Around him were a couple of soldiers in uniform, at least one young man acting as an assistant with clipboard and metal briefcase, all were armed with rifles and a few had short swords. The WRO logo was featured prominently. Sephiroth was starting to wonder why he had never heard of this company. "Tuesti" was giving the lecturer a stern and troubled look. "Can you comment on that professor?"

The camera turned back to the young man who didn't look any older then Jens, or Sephiroth himself, certainly not old enough for the title. The young man shifted back and forth a moment as he thought. "It's difficult to offer a complete evaluation of the events, no offense meant to Mr. Strife." The camera panned to Cloud who waved a hand in casual dismissal. "But there are things that someone not properly trained just wouldn't notice. But, given what we know of the Jenova virus' properties it is most likely that Nibelheim was due to Sephiroth suffering a genuine psychotic break."

Sephiroth frowned at the odd statement, unsure what to make of it. It made no sense, so he brushed it aside. The man continued talking about drives, infection, reunion, and Meteorfall and how they all tied together, but it made little sense to Sephiroth.

What kept his attention was the speaker's reference to Jenova. 'Jenova' was his mother's name. Hojo spoke little about her and when asked would sometimes fly into a rage, so Sephiroth learned early on not to ask. He was able to glean some information here and there, and there were some things that he had known for so long he couldn't remember how he'd learned them.

However, he'd never heard that there was a disease named after her, and they were implying that _he_ had it too. And while Hojo may have been a controlling, secretive bastard, surely he would have told Sephiroth if he was sick, especially if it could make him do somethinglike that_. _The speaker wasn't saying exactly what Nibelheim or Meteorfall were, but there was a tone of awe and horror in his voice whenever the words came up. Sephiroth recognized Nibelheim from the Nibelheim reactor but they talked about it like it was an event or something that had happened. Meteorfall was just a mystery.

Sephiroth's sharp hearing caught the muffled thud of footsteps on the carpeted hall. He didn't have time to sit here and agonize over the lecture, but if he just left it he would never figure out what it was they were talking about, and maybe he could figure out what Cloud was doing there. Before he could think about the possible consequences for what he was doing Sephiroth quickly ejected and pocketed the data disk. He was back in the waiting area, ensconced in one of the battered couches, before Dr. Weber exited the narrow hallway.

"Sorry about that," the older man smiled warmly. "Minor crisis with one of the databanks going offline."

"I understand, Dr. Weber," Sephiroth said standing. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"Unfortunately not, but thank you for the offer." Dr. Weber gestured for Sephiroth to follow him into his office. Sephiroth tried to hold himself with the appearance of calm, even though he felt an itching nervousness crawling up the back of his arms, he felt like he was walking into a trap even though he knew that the other workers here were all unmodified human and posed no threat. On the other hand they somehow made Cloud, so there was nothing to say that they haven't made another one of their alternate SOLDIERs. "Now, I know it's around here somewhere."

Dr. Weber shuffled papers around on his desk and the filing cabinets behind him. Sephiroth wondered if there really was a package and if the man had contacted Cloud yet. The phone on his desk rang. Weber unburied it from a pile of folders and answered it distractedly. "Weber here. Lockdown? Now?"

The phone had directional sound technology built into it and of extremely good quality to be able to block SOLDIER hearing. It was odd for a phone in a private office. Technology like this was used mostly for privacy and sound cancellation in shared offices or calls centers, but what annoyed Sephiroth the most about it was that it meant he was unable to clearly discern what the person on the other end of the line was saying beyond a muffled voice mostly masked by the buzz of white noise. Sephiroth wished that Dr. Weber would turn, just a little, if Sephiroth could get on the other side of the sound cancellation he would be able to hear what was being said. But even when Dr. Weber glanced at Sephiroth, Dr. Weber kept the handset pointed away from him. "No, no he left about five minutes ago….Yup, not a problem. Great, will do. Bye." Weber hung up the phone and gave Sephiroth a worried look. "C'mon, we've got to get you out of the building."

"Why? What about Cloud's package?" Sephiroth asked, genuinely surprised that he was being shuffled off so quickly.

"Hang the package. We're going into lockdown."

"Lockdown?"

"Quarantine against potentially unknown pathogens," Dr. Weber said as he led Sephiroth to a side exit where he swiftly disabled the alarms on the door and shooed Sephiroth out. "It's mostly just a formality, but I don't imagine that you'd be happy being stuck here for the next four weeks."

The mention of pathogens after the talk of a virus that could take over someone's will made Sephiroth's skin crawl, but if it was potentially dangerous. "Are you sure? It might be best if I stay."

Dr. Weber had a momentary look of panic flash across his face before he waved his hand in a casual gesture of dismissal. "Don't worry. The worst thing that we've had to deal with so far was a slightly more resistant strain of the flu."

"But-"

"I'll call you or Cloud if anything actually turns up, four out of five it's nothing," he said giving Sephiroth a small nod he slammed the door shut.

Sephiroth contemplated the door in silence. That was… strange. If they'd wanted him out, it would have been easy enough to just not let him in, but Sephiroth had been too easily led around to believe that it was pure coincidence. On the other hand, he had a little more information on what WolfHaven was up to, and unless there were underground levels that he hadn't seen, they were not capable of producing the same levels of genetic tinkering as the ShinRa's Science Department. So how could they have developed a SOLDIER like Cloud, and whatever Yuffie was supposed to be? Sephiroth decided that he wasn't going to get anything more from the area, so he called in for a pickup to head back to Midgar. Maybe he could find something useful on the data disk.

The trip back to Midgar seemed to take twice as long as it had going down. Once back Sephiroth ensconced himself in his bunk; a tiny little cubical of a room that contained a loft bed with a computer terminal on a cramped desk and locker tucked underneath and barely any room to stand. He popped the disk into his computer's disk drive and waited. The fans inside whirred to life and the desktop with the ShinRa logo went black. A WRO logo came into focus, then a close up to a pair of green eyes.

"Is this thing on? Okay, good." Sephiroth couldn't tell if the speaker was a young boy or a girl, the high voice and fuzzy, too close picture made it difficult to determine gender. The camera spun around, a flash of milling crowd and then focused on the young professor peering out from behind a curtain. "So, how do you feel?"

"I think I am about to piss myself," he said. "There are more people here tonight, then for any of the other lectures in this series. Combined."

"But that's good right?"

The young professor ignored the question, staring out at the audience. "Look at them, there isn't anyone who didn't come." The camera turned to focus on the audience. "ShinRa and WRO, of course, they've been to every single one." The camera panned over to a wide view of a young president Shinra surrounded by Turks talking coolly with the Tuesti look-a-like over their respective lackeys. Both sets of whom were armed to the teeth and eyeing each other warily.

The president was startlingly young, mid to late twenties, and his well toned muscles hadn't yet been subsumed by rolls of fat. Sephiroth would've found it hard to believe it was the same person if not for the same sharp blue gaze, the propensity for well tailored white suits, and Turk bodyguards. Given the age difference- -the president claimed to be in his mid-forties, but Sephiroth would put him at late fifties, and that was as a kindness- -this video must be at least twenty-five, maybe thirty years old.

"And look, there's Highwind Aeronautics" The camera swept over the audience to zoom in on a man that looked out of place in grease stained work clothes amid the suits and uniforms, a cigarette clenched between his teeth and a set of goggles holding back scruffy graying hair. "North Coral." A large black man in rough clothing, flanked by a couple of other miners with him talking and shouting, the mike wasn't focused on them so it didn't pick up actual words but a muffled angry buzz could be heard as the large man spoke. "Wutai." A pair of older Wusheng men each molded after different stereotypes; one portly and sagacious, the other thin and sinister, and _Yuffie_, grinning ear to ear. "Cosmo Canyo- Hellfire, he actually came."

"Who?" The camera was wrenched back to focus on the young professor, who looked pale and sick.

"Cloud Strife."

"The guy who stopped Meteorfall?" The camera returned to panning the audience, it skipped right over Cloud at first before finally fixing on him. Cloud was talking to another man, dressed in a ragged red cloak with long black hair. Something about the picture didn't seem right although Sephiroth couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Yes! Meteorfall and Sephiroth." The dark man glanced up at the camera with blood red eyes before dismissing it as unimportant.

After a moment Sephiroth was able to put words to the niggling sense of something wrong. The recording couldn't possibly be twenty years old; Cloud looked the same as he ever did. Sephiroth watched as the milling crowd settled into their seats and turned their attention to the stage

"Oh, crap, man. I think you are on." The camera turned towards the stage and there was a click as the microphone feed opened to record the words of the elderly man currently at the podium.

"…And I would like to introduce the youngest ever to hold the title here at Aerlheim University, Professor Associate Jonathon Dessau."

"Crap, crap, crap. Do I look okay, nothing in my teeth?" He bared his teeth at the camera in an uneasy grin.

"Good, you're good. Get out there," The cameraman said, pushing the young professor Dessau out onto the stage. He strode forward looking more confident than he had a few minutes ago as he shook hands with the elderly man.

"Thank you, Professor," Dessau said as he took his place behind the podium. The whiteboard behind him was blank and there was also a screen to his right that had the WRO logo rotating on the screen. "And thank you to everyone for joining us this evening for our lecture series, the Science of ShinRa.

"I would like to thank first of all, Commissioner Tuesti for sponsoring the lecture." Sephiroth started at the name and was unsurprised when the camera pointed to the WRO group. Tuesti smiled and waved. "And, also, to President Shinra for opening the company's records, though they were incomplete… throu- through no fault of the company, they were invaluable." Shinra lifted a hand in acknowledgement but did not smile. "And thank you to the Aerlheim University librarians, for not burning Hojo's articles on general principals." Weak laughter wound its way through the crowd.

"The lecture today focuses on the primary project that makes the world what it is today. The Jenova Project." Dessau paused a moment to write JENOVA across the top of the whiteboard, with the name Gast underneath. Sephiroth recognized the name but couldn't put a face to the man. He had left the project when Sephiroth was very young. "The project was founded and first headed by Professor Gast. He was excavating in the Northern Crater, the site of the first Meteorfall, during the summer of '59, when the ancient body of a Cetra woman was discovered encased in crystallized Mako. Although it wouldn't be until ten years later when Gast took over as head of the ShinRa Science department that the project really took off.

"It's said that his skill in paper pushing and bureaucratic politics earned him his position, but his first love was archaeology, and mythology. When he found the Cetra woman in the center of the crater the first thing he thought of was the story of the sky-woman. She was spied by a farmer who fell in love with her ethereal beauty, and he stole her cloak of seven wings so she could not leave him to return to the stars. She married the farmer and had children, but like their mother, her children would always yearn for the stars." Dessau stepped back to contemplate the screen behind him as it flipped to the picture of a dead woman's face, a steel plate across her brow read JENOVA, and a single red eye that glared out sightlessly. The other eye was covered by a fall of silver hair. "The myth was often used to explain why other humans were different from the Cetra; they had the blood of the sky-woman in their veins. Gast named his fallen angel after the sky-woman in the myth. Jenova."

Sephiroth yawned. Now he knew where his mother's name came from. He wondered briefly about his grandparents who would give a child a name from a myth like that.

"As more of the body was uncovered it was learned that there was more to it than initially appeared." The picture on the screen pulled back showing a full view of the… thing in a Mako tank. Sephiroth couldn't help the gasp that escaped him. He had seen plenty of monsters, humanoid and other, all in various states of dismemberment but this thing was like nothing else he had ever laid eyes on. She had no arms and stubby leathery wings protruded from her back. Red, fleshy coils of something that might be tentacles but also reminded him of internal organs curled around her legs, some of them leading to a massive dragon's heart below her feet. "The body was a chimera of a dozen different creatures. The study of this body formed the basis of the Jenova Project. Professors Hollander and Hojo, a geneticist and a biologist respectively, were brought in to help analyze and classify what exactly Jenova was.

"They realized fairly early on that the creature was able to copy DNA structures, in part and in whole, from its victims and recombining them into a new form. The last records we have, three years before Meteorfall, list seventeen different species and at least 145 distinct individuals unique DNA within Jenova's cells." On the left hand side of the board Dessau wrote the letter A. "The so-called project Ancient, because at the time it was thought that Jenova _was_ an Ancient and that this copying technique was an obscure talent long since lost, was started in an attempt to recreate and capitalize on this technique."

Sephiroth stifled a yawn as he found himself nodding off, not a safe proposition while sitting on the small, wobbly office chair that came with the desk. Dessau wrote the names Hollander and Gillian on the board. He crossed out the A and wrote G.

"This sub-project was headed by Hollander who renamed it Project G after the surrogate, Gillian, who gave birth to two of the more human results. Hollander used traditional cloning methods, then a scientific breakthrough, to try to recreate an Ancient with Jenova's copying skill. This was done by teasing out a section of DNA from Jenova…"

Sephiroth checked the time, it was well past midnight, and he was tired. And the lecture was... a lecture. He wasn't learning any great secrets about Cloud or WolfHaven. This was a waste of time, and he had to be up in the morning. Sephiroth turned off the computer and hauled himself up into bed where he was passed out almost before his head hit the pillow.

He didn't have much of an opportunity to get back to the disk. Hojo decided he needed some "adjustment" and between his usual missions and stints in the Mako tube, what little free time he had was usually spent either exhausted or delusional. He didn't even have as much time as he would have liked for practicing with Ashura either. Instead he wasted it on things like roaming the Complex for five hours trying to locate a crying girl before he realized that no one else even heard the incessant sobbing.

On the other hand he didn't see Cloud at all. He wasn't looking forward to the fallout for snooping around WolfHaven. For all that Cloud espoused a reconnaissance-heavy approach to nearly everything; Sephiroth couldn't help but wonder if he would make an exception for himself.

Sephiroth had just finished logging yet another kill for a local monster hunt when the call from ShinRa came in. The monster was a small thing and a standard infantry patrol could have probably done it, but Sephiroth needed the excuse to get away from Hojo, even if the farthest he could go was the chocobo ranches on the far side of Kalm. He was tempted to ignore the call. He could always say that he hadn't received it. The reception out here was certainly spotty enough to be believable.

"Sephiroth, here," he answered anyway.

"You are to drop your current mission, and return to Midgar," a vaguely familiar male voice greeted him. He wasn't sure if he was disappointed or relieved that it wasn't Cloud. "Someone will be at your location shortly to pick you up."

"Why? Who is this?"

"You are being reassigned. Your new mission is of the utmost importance." The phone went dead before Sephiroth could ask any further questions. A quick check of his PHS found the small handful of pre-approved missions that he had picked up had all been removed from his queue and placed back in the general pool. He was in On-Mission status but the details were blank.

Sephiroth snapped the PHS shut settled down to wait. It was already fairly late in the evening, so it will be very late by the time he got back, he had been planning to stay out the night and head back for Midgar in the morning.

Four hours later and it was indeed very late, most of the building had already shut down for the evening, but his PHS still rang the minute he hit the ShinRa Complex. This time the number was not blocked. It originated from the ShinRa Building: The Department of Administrative Research, Veld. _Turks._

"My office," the voice on the other side of the line said before Sephiroth could even say anything. This was why everyone hated Turks, they were always watching. "Floor 51."

And he was gone. Sephiroth tucked the PHS back away and trudged to the elevator bank. Floor 51 held all the offices for many of the "lesser" directors and sub-departments. When he got there only one door was opened a crack with a stream of golden light spilling out into the dark hallway. Inside both Veld and Cloud were standing over maps of Midgar spread over the massive black desk.

"Sephiroth, I hope you enjoyed your vacation," Veld said. He was a middle aged man, marred with the heavy scars of a hard life, but he wore neat black business suit that was the hallmark of the Turks well. Even the leather gloves he wore at all times were un-creased and well cared for. "It's over and you've been tapped for a top priority mission."

"What is the objective?" Sephiroth asked. Not quite snapping a salute, as it wasn't required for non-military personnel, but standing at attention, stance rigid and straight.

"The president's son managed to slip his caretakers early yesterday afternoon," Veld said with a tired sigh. "They performed a search of the building. When he was not found by 1700 hours, I was notified of the situation. This afternoon review of the security tapes found evidence of the boy getting on a rim-bound train at 2:15."

"The video was found just this afternoon?" Sephiroth asked, he was under the impression that the Turks were usually more on top of things.

Veld gave him a hard look. "The boy has become better at avoiding cameras. So far we've found no record of him getting off the train-"

"Means nothing," Cloud interrupted. "At least a third of the cameras have been tampered with."

"And search of the cars have yielded no additional information." Veld continued on with barely a pause.

"Why was I pulled?" Sephiroth asked. "This sounds like a First Class assignment." Not so much because of the difficulty but due to the sensitive nature of the task, a more important factor then many would consider.

"The president demanded that we have the best on this, Cloud and Hojo both indicated separately that 'the best' would be you." Sephiroth felt a swell of pride. Cloud thought that he was the best. Cloud asked for him as support.

"I will be working with you and Cloud on this case personally," Veld continued. "We were planning on following the boy's movements tomorrow. Right now we are trying to see if we can discern any likely places for him to disembark."

"End of the line," Cloud said.

Sephiroth stepped up to look at the maps. "Why?"

"He's a kid with nowhere to go but away," Cloud explained. He tapped a spot on one of the maps. A train station near the outer edge of the plate. "He'll go as far as he can, before following something else that catches his eye."

"Oh?" Veld asked, breaking the cool profession Turk façade for a moment of open curiosity. "Were you a runaway Cloud?"

"No," Cloud said shortly, he glanced quickly at Sephiroth before looking away. "I was always running towards something. But I used to know a kid like that."

"Alright then," Veld said. "We meet at the station and take the 2:15 rim-bound. And I guess we will see where things go from there."

"Yes, sir." Both he and Cloud saluted at the clear dismissal. Sephiroth and Cloud made their way back to the elevator. They had to wait for the elevator to arrive, it had returned to rest on the first floor while they were in Veld's office. Sephiroth waited for Cloud to say something, anything, about his impromptu infiltration of WolfHaven.

The elevator arrived and they both entered. Cloud hit the buttons for the 15th and the third floors. Sephiroth frowned. Cloud must be very familiar with the building to know that the SOLDIER barracks were on the 15th floor, especially since he wasn't staying there himself. And he still wasn't saying anything. Sephiroth glanced up at the camera in the corner of the elevator, but then Cloud probably wouldn't want to discuss sensitive topics while under surveillance. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Fifteenth floor. Sephiroth exited.

"Sephiroth."

He turned to look at Cloud, poised in the door, hand hovering over the button panel. Sephiroth hoped the fact that his pulse picked up wasn't completely obvious.

"Don't stay up too late. You look dead on your feet." The doors slid shut and the digital numbers above them started counting down. Sephiroth let out a sigh and made his way back to his bunk. He certainly felt dead on his feet.

… … …

**AN:** I've had several people ask is Yuffie is AC!Yuffie and I find myself torn on how to respond to the question. On the one hand descriptions are as Sephiroth sees them, at this point there is no further information I can give in-story one way or the other to make the answer more clear, as those details would completely give the game away too early. On the other hand, while the story is told strictly from Sephiroth's point of view there is a level of information that is given to the readers who have access to more information then Sephiroth. The reader doesn't have to know canon well to enjoy the story (I would like to think) but you would probably pick up some pieces of information easier, like the answer to this question.

Most information can be found at the Final Fantasy Wiki if anyone cares to look, and since the information is already out there, I may as well be up front about it here and save people an extra step. Yuffie was 16 in the original game, and has not been born yet at the time of this story, (in the original game Sephiroth was 32. In this story he's 15. Seventeen year difference), therefore any appearance by Yuffie can only be the version from the future.


	5. Chapter 5

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 5

… … …

Instead of sleeping as he had been ordered to, Sephiroth hunted out the WolfHaven disk and placed it in the disk drive. He was tired, but his brain wasn't completely dead. He could at least make a little headway into the information on the lecture. The WRO logo came up, green eyes, 'is this thing even….' Sephiroth hit the fast forward command on the keyboard. The image swayed back and forth across the audience.

Sephiroth fished out his PHS from his pocket and pulled up his mission profile. There was a picture of Rufus Shinra, the missing Shinra heir, looking well groomed and petulant. His hair was neatly combed, and tailor made white suit looking like a miniature version of the president complete with chubby cheeks and blue eyes. The profile said that he was a solemn child, with a sharp intellect a little ahead of others in his age group. He had little patience for anything 'stupid,' including and especially the adults around him.

Sephiroth glanced up at the monitor, it was still pointed at the young professor cowering behind the curtain. Turning back to his PHS he accessed the ShinRa intranet and typed in 'wormhole.' The ShinRa intranet on the Worldwide Network hosted more than just company related sites and information, many employees also had personal pages and non-work related discussion boards. It was the largest collection of electronic data in the world and a good portion of it went unmonitored by the administration, simply because there was just too much of it.

While the WolfHaven files were locked up under firewalls that Sephiroth couldn't even dream of hacking through there were some open discussions on the nature of wormholes and their theoretical uses in a couple of the open boards. A wormhole was a warp in time and space that was caused by a gravity well, and there was some discussion on the type and size of Gravity Materia you'd need to artificially create one. The main purpose the posters had for one was to traverse vast distances, not just another part of the globe but to another planet, or further.

He only briefly entertained the notion that Cloud and the recordings could have come from another planet, but there were too many inconsistencies: ShinRa, Wutai, Tuesti, it was impossible for all of those names to be developed independently by two worlds. No, the recording, and Cloud, were from here, but why spend so much effort and equipment for a practically immobile bridge between two points when an airship or a truck could get you there easier and cheaper. What was the purpose of the wormhole? What, exactly, was on the other side?

Sephiroth checked the monitor again to see that he had gone too far forward, the white board was mostly filled and there was a picture of an unfamiliar monster on the screen. Sephiroth hit the space bar on his keyboard to play. Hojo had drummed into him all of the major classes of monsters and their strengths and weaknesses, it was odd that there was one he didn't recognize. Not inconceivable, certainly, but Hojo was generally pretty thorough.

"The makonoids acted as living cultures and were teeming with the Jenova virus," young Professor Dassau was saying. "The Jenova virus copied the makonoid's DNA pattern before being extracted and used to create the SOLDIER treatments.

"ShinRa had finally hit upon the combination of genes for the 'perfect' SOLDIER. Unlike previous generations the treatments were not tailor made for the individual. It was one size fits all, and there was a greater chance of a bad reaction to either the mutations or the Mako. The failure rate still fell within ShinRa's acceptable profit margins, and even these individuals, with minds complete destroyed from Mako poisoning, served to keep the process going.

"Unlike traditional SOLDIERs where the mutation is halted before it alters the individual's cosmetic make up, the mutation in the failures were allowed to continue until there was full genetic and overt demonstration of the new DNA traits. These monsters are SOLDIER with the last vestige of their humanity removed." Sephiroth felt his gut twist in disgust. That could not be right. He backed the recording up.

"These monsters are SOLDIER with the last vestige of their humanity removed." The phrase remained unchanged. And there was no great out cry from the audience. He wished the camera would pan back over so he could see their reaction. See Cloud's reaction. He replayed it again. "These monsters are SOLDIER with the last vestige of their humanity removed."

"These monsters are SOLDIER with the last vestige of their humanity removed." They were monsters.

"These monsters are SOLDIER with the last vestige of their humanity removed." They were all monsters, designed by Hojo to be killing machines. Weapons. Tools.

"These monsters are SOLDIER with the last vestige of their humanity removed." Easily broken and thrown away.

Sephiroth shut off the monitor with a sharp jab of his fingers. Perhaps a little too hard, he could hear the plaster of the wall behind the monitor crack with the force. He didn't really care. He grabbed Ashura and headed back to the elevators for a quick trip to the training room. He needed to kill something, even if it was something fake, to burn off the tension and fear eating away at his gut. What was SOLDIER? What was he? The seven feather charm tied to Ashura's pommel chimed a cheerful tune incongruous with his dark mood.

… … …

The train station near the ShinRa building wasn't quite as grimy as some of the other ones Sephiroth had been to but it wasn't great either. Veld and Cloud were already there, waiting for him. After his impromptu training exercise he had eventually calmed down and thought the matter through. He had no way currently to test the information on the video. Strange as the idea may seem it could be just an elaborate hoax that someone was trying to pull off, planting misinformation regarding ShinRa and the SOLDIER program. He decided to take any information with a grain of salt and check for testability. Later. Right now he had an important mission to focus on.

He was grateful the mission had a late start. Even with being able to sleep in after the late night he had cut it a little too close. Sephiroth hadn't even had time to braid his hair, instead tying it up into a quick ponytail to keep it out of his way, and he'd forgotten his helmet. He'd been doing that more and more often. Some of the other SOLDIERs frowned at him, but Cloud clearly approved of the decision. Veld didn't seem to have an opinion one way or the other, or even notice.

They made it onto the 2:15 rim bound with minimal discussion or fuss. There was little traffic going outbound, just a handful of people at the odd hour where most were already at work. People got off, people got on. Midgar passed in a grey blur. With all the stop and go it took three hours to travel the radial tracks, a trip that could have been made in half an hour by car. Less on Fenrir. Sephiroth found the trip to be long and tedious. He couldn't see how anyone could use the trains on a regular basis. They took forever to get anywhere, and even then it was only to the general vicinity. You had to walk or find other transport once you reached the station, but that wasn't the point. The point was to follow in the child's footsteps. To see what he saw.

So far there was nothing to catch their attention that might grip a child's curiosity until they reached the end of the line. They disembarked at another grey, dirty station that was no different from any of the others. Sephiroth looked around the station. He tried to remember what caught his attention when he was eight years old, but he couldn't remember what he was doing at eight. His childhood, his life, was a blur of green Mako and sharp steel.

"Look," Veld said, pointing to another train a few platforms over. "Think he'd want to keep going?"

"Probably," Cloud said. They got on the train. There was a monitor with the itinerary near the front of the car. Cloud tapped the keypad to take a look at it. "Sector Seven."

"What?" Veld asked. He didn't appear irritated by Cloud's inscrutability. Veld's expression was a flat, if not flatter, then it usually was. Sephiroth still wondered if it irritated the Turk to have the tables turned, usually he was the one with the oblique comments.

"End of the line is Sector Seven."

"That's mostly residential isn't it?"

"Under plate," Cloud clarified.

Veld didn't swear, but by the tightening of his lips he clearly wanted to.

It was not as long a ride as Sephiroth had expected given how long it took for them to reach the rim. The train only stopped at one or two stations for each sector before it dropped down under the plate. As the train started to slow for each stop, Sephiroth strained to find something that might catch a young boy's interest, some small reason for him to get off the train before it hit the slums. Veld seemed to be doing the same, and looking more worried as each stop yielded nothing but more grey steel and concrete. There weren't even the colorful banners of Little Wutai since Sector Three was the direction the train had been coming from when they boarded it. Cloud remained expressionless and unmoving. He didn't seem too worried at the prospect, but then he was more familiar with the slums then most ShinRa employees.

It was early evening when they reached the end of the line in Sector Seven. Everyone was politely ushered from the train by a recorded female voice. The platform was filled with salary workers heading home from their jobs and teenagers heading out to party. The crowd eddied around the three of them as they considered their options. The only other train was going back the way they had just come, following the long spiral tracks around Midgar.

"He could have gone either into the train graveyard or deeper into Sector Seven," Sephiroth said. "He'd have little chance in the graveyard."

"I don't like the odds of the boy alone under plate," Veld said. "Anti-ShinRa sentiment is higher, makes him more of a target."

"But he isn't ShinRa, he's a little boy separated from his parents," Sephiroth said.

"Which is almost as bad in some Sectors," Veld said.

"What does he like?" Cloud asked.

"Dogs, sweets, playing cops and robbers with his caretakers," Veld answered promptly.

"Cops? Not SOLDIER?" Cloud asked.

"I think he's a little frightened of SOLDIERs."

"Smart kid," Cloud said with a bitter twist to his lips. "So, he likes animals and people, but not monsters. He'll follow the crowds."

Veld nodded in agreement and the both turned to move with the flow of the crowd into Sector Seven. As he followed, Sephiroth frowned thoughtfully. Veld hadn't said monsters, he said SOLDIER. He glanced at Cloud out of the corner of his eye. Did Cloud think that they were monsters because of that lecture? Although, Cloud was supposedly made differently by WolfHaven, did that mean that he wasn't the same as the rest of SOLDIER?

Sector Seven in the evening was a little brighter, more lights on and more people out and about. The stores were open and well lit. He could hear laughter and conversation from nearby restaurants filled with customers and lines of waiting people milling about on the sidewalk. The homes in the upper stories were lit with warm light and occasional shadows flickered across the curtains, signs of families at home. Sephiroth almost missed it because of the crowd.

"Where are the children?" He asked. Both Cloud and Veld turned to look at him. "When Cloud and I were here a while back, there were children playing in the streets. Where are they now?"

"Dinner?" Veld suggested, as both he and Cloud scanned to crowd, confirming Sephiroth's observation. There was no one below 15 out, and no one was alone. They moved in groups, watching each other's backs.

"Wait here one moment," Cloud ordered. He disappeared into the crowd with surprising ease. Sephiroth wondered if Cloud might have connections that he didn't want ShinRa to know about. Sephiroth glanced over at Veld who was scanning the crowd with a blank expression but didn't seem terribly concerned about being abandoned. The time ticked by as they waited. Five minutes, seven.

"What do you make of it?" Sephiroth asked.

"Something's got them spooked," Veld answered, still eyeing the crowd.

"ShinRa press gang," Cloud said, he emerged from the crowd almost as seamlessly as he had disappeared into it. He turned to Veld. "Who was working the area?"

The man was already on his PHS.

"Press gang?" Sephiroth asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"ShinRa can't always get the people it needs for the reactors and the mines," Cloud explained, words clipped and expression tight. "The press gangs will hit the streets and strong arm anyone they can catch into signing contacts."

"You don't think they would have grabbed him? He's eight," Sephiroth objected. You had to be at least twelve to sign a legally binding contract without parental consent.

By the bleak look on Cloud's face, that is exactly what he thought. "They also don't check IDs."

"Mythril Mine Co-operative," Veld said tucking his PHS away. "Shipped out at 2100 hours the day before yesterday."

"More than enough time to pick up the boy on one last sweep through the Sector," Cloud said.

Veld nodded, a brief tilt of his head. "I've ordered an infantry platoon organized for us at Junon, they should be ready by the time we get there."

"An entire platoon?" Sephiroth asked as they made their way back to the train station. Numbers tended to vary depending on how the parties were grouped and a platoon could mean anywhere from twenty-four to sixty troopers. Even if they drew on the small end of the spectrum, that seemed a little much for the retrieval of one boy from a mining crew.

Cloud glanced back at him. "Think of it as an exercise in logistics."

Sephiroth tried not to groan. "I didn't know the Junon area was hostile territory. Isn't the Mythril Mine owned by ShinRa?"

"In name only," Veld said. They were able to board an express straight to the upper core near Section Eight. "Many of these subsidiaries have little to no oversight from the main company. As long as they are still able to maintain their profit margin ShinRa doesn't care. I'm sure that the Mythril Mine Co-operative is going to be less then pleased with us sweeping in to carry off one of their 'employees'."

"So, worst case scenario they decide not to hand the boy over, they hide him in some out of the way corner, and we have to search for him, fighting the whole way," Sephiroth said. "Does that summarize the situation?"

"Admirably," Veld said dryly. Cloud simply nodded.

"They'd be foolish to do that," Sephiroth said. "ShinRa could easily destroy them give their contracts to someone else. It would make more sense to hand the boy over without a fight, even it if wasn't…" Sephiroth hesitated to name the boy outright in public. He wasn't certain how close ShinRa wanted to keep news of the missing heir.

"People do not always act in a sensible manner," Veld said.

"This is sounding more like an exercise in extraction then logistics."

"There is some overlap," Cloud agreed.

"Wonderful," Sephiroth said dryly. Once off the train they were quickly ferried to a waiting helicopter and then to Junon. ShinRa may have been a behemoth, but when it got into its head to move quickly, it did. Their platoon was waiting for them when they arrived, lined up on the tarmac in blue BDUs with a troop transport airship not far away. Sephiroth estimated about thirty infantry had been assigned to their command.

Cloud's command actually. As Director of the Department of Administrative Research Veld may have out-ranked all of them at ShinRa, but here in the field Cloud was the commanding military officer. Even despite the fact that Cloud was not technically ShinRa. His status and rank were established by WolfHaven and not ShinRa, but ShinRa extended the rank and privilege to Cloud for the duration of their joint venture.

"The Turks are trained in negotiations," Cloud said. SOLDIERs were not, Sephiroth knew. SOLDIERs were for when negotiations failed. "Veld will make first contact while we maneuver into position by the Mythril Mine Junon entrance. A small detachment will be ferried to the marsh entrance-"

"There's another entrance?" Veld asked looking mildly interested.

Cloud nodded a brief jerk of his head. "There's a small open space before the marshes. There are zoloms in the area."

"Why do we need a detachment?" Sephiroth asked, puzzled. "The marshes are a death trap to most people."

"They may decide to toss the boy out the back."

"Why would they do that?" Sephiroth asked. He could understand not wanting to turn over the boy, but to deliberately send him to his death. It was difficult concept for Sephiroth to wrap his mind around.

"Some people will take even the smallest victory in the face of defeat," Veld observed. Cloud nodded.

"Do you want me with the detachment?" Sephiroth asked, setting aside his personal discomfort to focus on the task at hand. From his experience in sims of the area, zoloms weren't the only things in those swamps that might find a child or even a small squad of ShinRa troopers to be tasty.

Cloud nodded after a moment's thought. "Make sure everyone stays clear of the marsh. The zoloms are usually in the deeper boggy waters, but better safe than sorry."

"Yes, sir."

Cloud flipped open his PHS and scanned the information on the platoon before them. "Take the Third Section. Leave a line to me open, I will send word on how we will handle your extraction once we find out how helpful the co-op is."

"Sir," Sephiroth said with a quick salute. He pulled his own PHS and quickly tagged the IDs for the two Party Leaders in his Section. The ShinRa military issue PHS while useful for SOLDIERs acting alone or in small groups really shone when having to coordinate large troop movements. Each trooper was tagged into a Party of three to five people, Party Leaders were then tagged together into a larger Section of two to three Parties. The system built up into larger and larger groups, allowing the acting officers to monitor each of the smaller groups' locations and status through the group leaders tagged in his PHS.

Doubt started creeping in as he looked out over the faceless helmets of the ShinRa troopers. He wasn't sure that he could lead these men. Sephiroth's rank of Captain as a Second Class SOLDIER meant that he had the capabilities and the training to lead the entire platoon, but this was his first real command. Granted it was rare for SOLDIER to lead anything more than a small Section or Party given the nature of most of their assignments, but even _Genesis_ had experience leading small parties as a Third Class. And Genesis was… actually Sephiroth was uncertain what Hojo's issue with him was but there was something unfair about the "failure" getting command experience while he was still doing sims and demonstrations.

To cover his uncertainty, Sephiroth carefully reviewed the troops under his care. He had seven people in Section Three, one group of three and one group of four. Each man was armed with machine gun, grenades, and refined Materia, Sleep and Dark. One man for every Section was designated the field medic and issued an unmastered Cure.

Sephiroth explained the mission briefly to his men. The troopers just saluted with a loud "yes, sir!" It disturbed him that they had no questions about what to expect from the monsters in the area, or from the Co-op. He hadn't thought he'd been working with Cloud long enough for Cloud's attitude to rub off on him, but seeing the silent acceptance from the other side was a little unnerving. He didn't lecture them the way Cloud had him, but he did lay out what information he had on the local monsters and what to expect from the Co-op if they should turn hostile.

Once their own flight was arranged with the base, and Sephiroth had coordinated their plans with Cloud. The helicopter Sephiroth would be using was faster than the airship that the main body of the platoon was on, but many of the mountains in the Mythril Range were taller than the helicopter's maximum altitude, so the pilot was going to have to circle around the southern reaches before arriving at the drop point. Over the din of the rotor blades Sephiroth could hear the troopers talking- -shouting, actually- -not having been issued the radio headsets for communication during the flight.

"Isn't that Hojo's pet SOLDIER?" One asked waving vaguely in Sephiroth's direction.

"Yeah, I saw him do a demonstration once. Blasted through a dozen of Scarlet's toys like they were paper," another faceless trooper said. "I'd recognize that hair anywhere. I'd thought he'd be First Class by now."

The first trooper snorted. "Probably spends more time on his hair then his weapons. Nah, he'll never make it that far. You need real experience to be First Class, and I've heard Hojo's too much of a control freak to let him out for anything important."

Sephiroth frowned at that revelation. They were right about Hojo. As much as he wanted Sephiroth to be First Class he'd also never let Sephiroth out from under his thumb. The only reason Sephiroth was here was because Hojo was probably still under the impression that they were combing the upper plate for a runaway, not planning to lay siege to a mine in the middle of monster infested mountains.

"Well, that explains why he's stuck at the back door with the rest of you pussies," another trooper chimed in to a chorus of 'shut up' and 'what about you?'

One of the two Corporals leaned forward and smacked the first trooper lightly on the metal helmet knocking it off kilter. "He can hear you, you know?"

"No, way!" The trooper objected, straightening the helmet. "I can barely hear Rossi there; I just know he's being an ass."

"Those SOLDIER enhancements mean more than being able to kick your ass," the Corporal said. A few of the other troopers may have cast him oblique glances, it was difficult to tell through the heavy helmets but they shifted uncomfortably in their harnesses.

Sephiroth maintained a blank expression, what really hurt was the thought that Cloud may have wanted him out of the way. Which was a stupid thing to worry about, having a SOLDIER for each division of their forces only made sense. That was why _he_ suggested it in the first place. It didn't stop the doubt from creeping in, and it was a long flight with little else to think about.

With no place for the helicopter to land they were literally dropped into the small crevice between the Mine's opening and the marshes. The troopers acted swiftly and positioned themselves at opposite ends with professional and practiced ease. They waited, and while the troopers weren't exactly the model stoic guards they at least avoided talking about Sephiroth where they knew he could hear. It was about two hours and some change when the call came in from Cloud.

"Negotiations failed, we are going in," Cloud told him. "Once the mine is secure we will bring your team through and leave from the Junon side."

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth said curtly. The other men in his small party tensed when the PHS rang, now checked their guns and looked vigilantly towards the mine entrance. It was smaller than the main entrance on the other side of the mountains. Sephiroth wondered why they needed it, and how Cloud knew about it.

It was eerily quiet, knowing that there was fighting going on deep in those tunnels and not being able to hear even the echo of gunfire or a flash of magic. Sephiroth was straining so hard to hear the sound of fighting that he almost missed the other sounds, the soft pad of bare feet and the whisper of cloth over stone.

"Be alert," Sephiroth ordered his men. "Someone is coming."

They raised their guns and sighted on the entrance. A few minutes later Sephiroth could see movement, shifting shadows that could not have been made by human forms.

"The fighting must have stirred up the local wildlife," Sephiroth said. "I haven't pinned an ID on any of them yet."

Whatever was in there hesitated, hung back beyond that last bend.

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for some Sense Materia right about now," one of the troopers grumbled to the other, as he hitched the gun higher on his shoulder. "But no, they just issue useless crap like Sleep. Does Sleep even work on anything, ever?"

"Because it's not like you can't just buy Materia," The other trooper said pointedly.

"Fuck no, man," he said. "I got better things to spend my paycheck on."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Like your sister."

"Oh, you cocksucker…." Gunfire from inside, from very near, startled the conversation into an abrupt halt. Sephiroth could hear high pitched cries and whimpers, the shadows surged forward.

"Incoming," he warned, readying Ashura.

"Fire at will," the Corporal ordered as the wave of monsters ran crying into the light. He raised his own gun and sighted.

"Belie that," Sephiroth ordered stepping forward to get a closer look at the creatures that came tumbling out of the mine. They were not the standard monsters he had been expecting for this area. In fact they were rather humanoid, small and humanoid. Although many did have some features of the local monsters, a castanets' claw, an arc dragon's wing, for the most part they were faced with what appeared to be human children of ages ranging from seven to fourteen.

Gunfire echoed from within the mines caused the children to cringe and cry as they surged forward again. Sephiroth had a flash of impressions, wide frightened eyes, a flinch from an expected blow, tear and dirt stained cheeks, as they started running towards the marshes. And the Midgar Zolom.

"No!" Sephiroth stepped forward into their paths, his arms spread wide, Ashura's edge turned away, but the children just streamed around him.

"Stop them," he ordered. "Don't hurt them, but don't let them reach the swamps. Use Sleep."

"You've got to fucking be kidding me," one of the troopers shouted.

"That was an order, Private," The Corporal growled, catching the nearest child in his arms and casting Sleep on a second one.

From the mine there was more gunfire, and shouting. Sephiroth identified adult voices. "Get moving, you little shits, what's the hold up?"

The voice was different, but the tone was the same that Sephiroth had heard from a half dozen orderlies and scientists that had taken over his "care" whenever Hojo's attention wandered to other things.

A couple of men emerged from the cavern, miners in heavy work clothes and the Mythril Mine Co-op stitched in silver across their biceps. There were machine guns in their hands that they fired into the ground herding the children forward into the swamps.

Sephiroth had never been able to protect himself against the abuses from those men when it would have made a difference. Just like these children could do nothing now. Sephiroth saw red.

The first man was dead before anyone, even Sephiroth, had realized that he had moved. Ashura slid cleanly through his stomach. Sephiroth had felt almost no resistance. He stepped back and pulled Ashura free with a sharp twist. The other men were bringing their guns up to point at him. He swept them aside with the flat and whipped the leading edge through the air, blood spattered and Ashura _sang_.

… … …

Sephiroth came back to himself, trembling, and standing in the center of a ring of at least five dead bodies. All Co-op miners. He didn't recognize the stone walls surrounding him, he had no idea how he got there. His PHS was ringing.

"Sephiroth here." As he answered he used his other hand to grab the feather charm and stop its discordant jangling.

"Sir!" The relief in the voice on the other end of the line was palpable. "We got the kids to quiet down, but there's movement in the marshes."

"Post a guard on the children, and then support the other party," Sephiroth ordered. "I will be there shortly."

He ended the call and checked his PHS location feature. Fortunately the map function had been working. He wasn't far from the entrance, the tunnels looped around and circled in on each other so it wouldn't take him long to get back to the others.

Sephiroth found the children, about thirty of them, huddled together in small groups along the sides of the ravine with a lone trooper standing nearby watching over them. He lifted his gun when Sephiroth appeared at the mine entrance then lowered it quickly for a salute. Sephiroth noticed an odd shadow over the children's eyes. "Dark?"

"They're a little light sensitive. It seems to calm them down, sir," the trooper said, still maintaining his salute. Sephiroth was relieved that the one left with the children was not the one who objected his order earlier.

"As you were," Sephiroth said. He stepped carefully around the groups of children, a little too close to one who turned and hissed at him. A red forked tongue snaking out of his mouth. An older girl with black eyes too large for her face made a shushing noise and gathered the little boy into her lap.

It wasn't far to reach the end of the ravine where the rest of the men stood staring into the sudden drop off into the wetlands. "Report."

One of the two corporals stepped back from formation and saluted, the rest of the men remained in combat ready positions. Something had them on high alert if they weren't going to break formation for the arrival of a superior officer. "Sir we've had several skirmishes with monsters from the marshes-"

"Fucking bugs the size of your head and a bird that could fly off with a full grown chocobo," one of the men muttered.

"We believe they might be attracted to the… the children," the corporal finished.

Sephiroth nodded. He felt a shiver of warning going up the back of his neck, something big was out there. The wetlands were deceptive. They looked like flat grassy plains with a patchwork of reflective pools and the occasional small scrub tree. It only looked open and flat. The real danger was that underneath the thick carpet of roots was anywhere from a few inches to a few hundred feet of water. And you would never know the difference until it was too late.

"Corporal," Sephiroth said calmly as he watched the grass ripple in an unseen wind. "Take the children and retreat into the mines, take up position at the first juncture."

"But, sir, we haven't gotten the all clear from the Major yet," the corporal objected. That was when the zolom finally decided to announce its presence by bursting through the grasses in front of them with a sudden lunge towards one of the front line troopers.

… … …

AN: I probably don't say this enough, but thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews. Even if I don't answer you directly I love getting your questions and speculations, and so totally not because I can't use them to check myself and make sure I've covered everything. Actually, I love all the reviews I've gotten, from the simple ones that say you've enjoyed the story to the nearly incoherent ones that make me laugh. So, thank you everyone. You guys are great!


	6. Chapter 6

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 6

… … …

Sephiroth was ready with a Fira to the creature's face that sent it reeling back. "Would you rather stay here?"

They beat a hasty but organized retreat. The zolom rarely ventured far from the water, but this one evidently wasn't going to let them get away so easily. It hissed and lunged after them.

Sephiroth called a quick a halt to the retreat, he didn't want to lead the creature to the children. He and the remaining men-with the medic thankfully, having someone else with a Cure would allow Sephiroth to focus on the attack-held the line against the monster.

They quickly discovered that Dark and Sleep just rolled off the monster. It got to the point where Sephiroth just ordered them to quit trying and focus on shooting the thing. Their medic's Cure Materia was seeing heavy use as he tried to keep up with the giant snake's swift strikes and crushing blows as a heavy coil would roll over the party.

Sephiroth darted in for a particularly heavy blow, the Vital Slash Materia in Ashura's hilt glowing brightly, leaving a trail of sunshine yellow in Sephiroth's wake. The zolom reared back, its head whipping back and forth in pain. When it stayed up, weaving back and forth in the narrow ravine, Sephiroth realized they were in trouble. It was preparing its major attack.

The other men should have evacuated the children to the relative safety of the Mines by now. Sephiroth signaled for the men to retreat, at least some of them should be able to safely escape. He stood the most likely chance to survive the attack, so he would cover their retreat.

Two men backed away and vanished up the ravine. Then the medic. The snake was still preparing its attack, he signaled for the last man to go. The man hesitated, but not for long. Sephiroth was left alone facing the zolom.

Red light gathered around the creature in a swirling pattern. Sephiroth braced himself for the attack. The creature lunged forward. A flash of steel, Sephiroth flinched back. When the pain of the devastating magic attack did not follow Sephiroth could only stare in surprise. The snake was pinned to the stone with the long grey steel of the Hollow Blade. Its giant maw opened and closed, sliding up and down the metal length, and the black tongue twisted around the sharp edge, its long body twisting behind it.

Cloud appeared next to him, a back blade in his right. The First Sword was in the harness at his back but the rest of the blades were missing. He gave Sephiroth a hard look. "Your Corporal called me in."

"Oh," Sephiroth said, uncertain of what else to say. Cloud walked over to the zolom. He grasped the covered hilt and pushed downward, driving the sword into solid rock until the snake could not move its head or open its jaw. Then Cloud brutally and ruthlessly slaughtered the pinned monster.

Sephiroth could only watch in awe. How Hojo could see that and call it worthless, Sephiroth would never understand. Watching Cloud go through the forms, even seeing him fight against lesser monsters, he could admire the grace and ruthless efficiency, but it took seeing it applied to the zolom that the abstract knowledge that Cloud was strong was put into perspective. Cloud wasn't just strong, he was powerful.

What surprised Sephiroth was the sudden _want_. Cloud was everything Hojo told Sephiroth he was supposed to be, everything Sephiroth thought he was, but he was only recently realizing that he fell short of the mark.

Cloud spun the blades with a quick roll of his wrist, flicking the blood off of the blades, before putting them away and turning back to Sephiroth. He did not look happy. Sephiroth snapped to attention, heels together, Ashura held loosely in his hand with the blade was turned so the flat rested along his arm.

"Would you care to explain yourself?" Cloud asked. His voice was cold and dangerous.

Sephiroth weighed his options quickly, trying to figure out which one would get him out of trouble the fastest. "Sorry, sir. I lost my temper. I should never have left the Section alone."

"You lost your temper," Cloud said flatly, clearly not pleased with Sephiroth's admission.

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth said.

"You cannot afford to lose your temper."

"No, sir."

Cloud frowned and looked like he wanted to say more on the matter, but instead shook his head. "What else?"

"Sir?" Sephiroth asked, still standing at rigid attention. Cloud started pacing in front of him.

"How many other ways did you break protocol?" Sephiroth stared straight ahead at the dead zolom as he thought over his actions. Cloud stopped pacing directly in front of Sephiroth. "What is the SOP for an ordered retreat?"

Sephiroth flinched. He hadn't been thinking about the standard operating procedures, he'd been trying to keep his men alive. "Medic and command in center."

"And you deviated from this, why?"

Five seconds ago Sephiroth felt perfectly justified in his reasons and his actions, now… not so much. But he couldn't see any way out of it. Any alternate explanation he could think of just sounded worse. So, he just gritted his teeth and barreled ahead. "Sir, I judged that I would be the one most likely to survive the attack from the Midgar zolom."

"And if you hadn't?" Cloud asked.

Sephiroth hesitated. The thought hadn't actually crossed his mind, even now he couldn't understand the concern. If he hadn't survived the attack, he wouldn't be around to worry about it.

"Those protocols are in place for a reason," Cloud said. "Why?"

Sephiroth had not only taken the officer training required by all SOLDIERs, Hojo had also drilled him on battle tactics and leadership, but when it came down to actually doing it Sephiroth fell back on what he had always done. Acting alone. "Leadership is a command function. The command needs to be alive to lead and to direct the best deployment of the forces at hand. There was no guarantee that I would survive that attack from the serpent either, but, sir should I just have left one of the men to die?"

"Sometimes you have to decide who you can least afford to lose." Cloud looked up at him with solemn blue eyes. "And you hope that there's enough left after the fight for a phoenix down to work with."

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth said sullenly. If those were decisions he would have to make on a regular basis, he thought he would much prefer going out alone on solo monster hunts. At least there the only person he had to worry about was himself.

"I'll be relieving you from command, the Section will revert to its lead Corporal," Cloud said with a sigh. Sephiroth flinched, and wondered how badly this was going to reflect on his record. "The Mines have been secure, so it would have happened anyway."

"Sir?" Sephiroth asked weakly, hopeful at the tone of Cloud's voice. It was no longer uncompromising and hard. He might get out of this yet.

"As I'm overseeing your training, I don't see any reason for a formal citation."

"Thank you, sir," Sephiroth said. It was bad enough that he screwed up, a formal write up would get back to Hojo. He tried not to shudder at the thought of the narrowly avoided 'adjustments.'

"At ease," Cloud said with a wave of his hand. "The lecture is over."

"Thank you, sir." Sephiroth relaxed his stance, moving his feet shoulder width apart. Ashura's hilt was grasped in both hands, her tip resting on the ground.

Cloud gave him a small smile, a slight quirk at the corner of his mouth. "Although, I ought to give you hell for making me feel like a hypocrite."

Sephiroth blinked in surprise, and asked hesitantly. "Sir?"

"The difference is _I_ can get away with pulling stunts like that."

"I can't," Sephiroth grumbled. That was abundantly clear.

"Not yet. Give it time," Cloud said. "Other than those two disasters, how were things on your end?"

"You were partially right sir," Sephiroth said. "They did attempt to drive a group of children into the marshes."

Cloud glanced at him. "The kids I saw with your section?"

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth said. "Most of them show signs of extreme mutation."

"Mako exposure?"

"It's difficult to say, but they don't have Mako eyes."

"They may not have high enough saturation for the eyes," Cloud mused softly, more to himself then to Sephiroth. "Have you checked them for the boy?"

"I haven't had time to look," Sephiroth admitted sheepishly. He would have had plenty of time if he hadn't gone off in a fit of temper.

Cloud grunted softly and without a word turned toward the mine entrance. Sephiroth sheathed Ashura and followed.

If the sudden relocation had frightened the children they were calm when Sephiroth and Cloud rejoined the section just inside the mine. Cloud spoke softly with the Corporals. He advised to let the children stay huddled together and when the Dark spells started to fade ordered that they be left alone. No longer in the weak sunlight they were not as agitated. Cloud made a slow circuit around the room with Sephiroth close behind, he examined the children, but didn't press them with questions. As near as they could tell the Shinra boy wasn't among them. Cloud decided it was time to meet with Veld for a debriefing before deciding on their next course of action.

They found Veld in a trailer outside mine that served as the Co-op's on site office. Veld was scanning through some files. Sephiroth summarized everything that occurred as coolly and professionally as he could, even reporting his screw ups. Veld did not take him to task for a second time and instead focused on the children's odd mutations.

"Illegal Materia mining would certainly explain why the men are finding tunnels we don't have on official maps from the Co-op," Veld said. He tossed the folders in his hands down. "These are worthless. They'll keep their real records somewhere else. And we still haven't found the boy."

"The kids might know something," Cloud suggested.

"The children?" Sephiroth asked. He hadn't considered that they might actually know anything. They were just part of the mission, the target to retrieve, holding important information was not part of their purpose. As soon as the realization crossed his mind Sephiroth wanted to smack himself. One of Cloud's earliest lessons was that things were not always easily placed into neat boxes and labels, especially not people.

"Kids are a lot more observant then most people will give them credit for," Cloud said.

"Did you question them?" Veld asked.

Cloud shifted uncomfortably before finally admitting. "I'm not very good with kids."

"No, sir. I… didn't think of it." Sephiroth said when Veld looked at him. He didn't like admitting it. This was a day for uncomfortable realizations.

"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt," Veld said. "Lead the way."

No one commented at the dead men, or the deep gouges in stone walls. Sephiroth felt a jumbled mix of emotions knowing that he did that. That he could strike with enough force to cleave metal through stone. It was a sign of feats of strength he hadn't known he was capable of. But he couldn't recall actually doing it, that a muddled red haze was all he could remember scared him a little. He was also reasonably certain that Cloud noticed. To Sephiroth's relief having already yelled at him once Cloud didn't seem inclined to do so again. He hated disappointing his mentor. Veld was the consummate Turk and didn't bat an eye.

When they arrived at the last juncture, the children seemed more alert now, no longer huddled together like a flock of frightened chocobos, but they were still shying away from the troopers. When they entered the small open space the men saluted smartly. Most of the children looked up and a few whispered together. Veld approached and crouched down by the nearest clutch.

"Hi," he said warmly, his previously harsh voiced softened when talking to the young boy in front of him. The child who couldn't have been more than eight, the same age as the missing heir, had patches of blue scaly skin. He turned away and buried his face against the side of a nearby girl. "My name is Veld, what's yours?"

The boy made no response just burrowed himself deeper into the girl's side. She glared up a Veld and put protective arms around the boy. It was the same girl Sephiroth had noticed before with the black eyes. On closer examination he could see that they were faceted and looked alien in her human face. "Davey doesn't talk. My name is Camille."

"Nice to meet you Camille, and you, too, Davey," Veld said politely. "We are looking for a boy around Davey's age that would have come in yesterday. Do you know where he is?"

"Why?" she asked warily, sounding all to adult with that simple suspicious question.

"His father is looking for him."

"Rufus said his father doesn't care about him," she said harshly.

The relief in the room just between the three of them was almost palpable, this was the first indication that the boy was even here. All of this could have been just a wild goose chase build on guesses and suppositions.

"Rufus' dad loves him and misses him very much," Veld assured her. "He sent me, and Sephiroth, and these other men to find Rufus and bring him home safe and sound." Veld pointed at himself, Sephiroth and the nearest trooper in turn.

Camille's resistance melted with a sad, wistful look. "He has the sleepy sickness," she said. "We hid him away so they wouldn't find out."

"So, who wouldn't find out?"

"The foremans," she said. "If you have the sleepy sickness they take you away. We can't hide the sick kids forever but sometimes they get better. If you can work you won't get taken away."

"What work do you do?" Veld asked.

"We pan through the shining water for gems. I'm very good at it. I can almost always find more gems than anybody else," she said proudly. Sephiroth was momentarily lost as to what she was talking about before he realized that she meant Mako and Materia. "Sometimes, if I'm above quota, I'll give my extra gems to kids who haven't found any yet."

"That's very nice of you," Veld said warmly, though Sephiroth could tell by the tense line of his back that something she had said had upset the older man. "Can you do me a favor?"

"What?" she asked, the wariness creeping back into her voice.

"Can you take me to Rufus?"

She thought hard about it, chewing her bottom lip between unnaturally sharp teeth. Veld didn't push, just waited patiently for her to come to a decision. After what only seemed like an eternity she nodded. The little boy in her lap was passed off to another older child and she stood up, ignoring Veld's offer for assistance. "He's with the Lady."

"Who is the Lady," Veld asked politely as she led them through the northbound tunnels. She shrugged and just scurried ahead with her head down, avoiding questions.

The tunnels that Camille led them down gradually lightened with a soft green light. Wisps of glowing vapor eddied around them. She ducked into a dark crevice that was almost indistinguishable from the mine wall, hidden in shadow.

Inside they stepped down into what seemed to be an Ancient temple of carved stone and a statue of a goddess on a golden throne, her bowed head almost touched the high ceiling. There was a tiled pool of clear water that must have been fed by an underground spring, Sephiroth was surprised that it still ran clear. The main double door had been pushed in by a spill of rocks, and now the only way into or out of the temple was through the small crevice.

"The foremen don't know about this place?" Veld asked.

"They do," Camille said. "But they don't like to come here, 'cause the Lady doesn't like them. He's here."

She waved for them to follow her behind the statue's throne. The throne was not entirely solid, and if there once was a door to hide the opening to the small antechamber it was long since gone. Inside they found that the main room could be watched through a screened window that was cleverly hidden from view from the other side. One wall was lined with shelves, and the other had a carved stone bench. A small blond boy, presumably Rufus, was hunched against the bench. His legs jutted out awkwardly into the small room, and his eyes were wide open and staring at nothing. He did not move when they crowded into the small space.

"Hey, Ruff," Camille said softly. "I brought some friends of your dad's. See, he really does love you. _My_ parents never sent anyone for me. And look what else I brought you…Hey!"

Cloud plucked a small plastic bottle out of her hand, quick as a striking snake. The label on the bottle was for a potion but it had been filled with heavily diluted Mako.

"He needs that, give it back," she tugged at Cloud's arm and kicked his shins but he didn't move or even appear to notice her blows.

Veld knelt down by Rufus and pulled a small penlight from his pocket to flash across Rufus' eyes. His pupils were already constricted to tiny pinholes and there was no reaction. "Mako addiction, and you think _more_ will help?"

"Sometimes it does," she protested. Veld looked taken aback. Mako addiction was not something most people knew how to deal with.

"Not this stuff," Cloud said softly.

"What do you mean?" Veld asked.

"It's been contaminated," Cloud explained. Sephiroth wanted to ask how he knew, but didn't want to undermine Cloud in front of a Turk. "Even if it does help with the addiction, it will cause mutation."

They turned and looked at the girl, who shrugged. "You can still work with monster parts. They don't take you away for that. I found something nice. Ruff said he _liked_ dogs."

"I'm fairly sure that doesn't necessarily mean he wants to _be_ one," Veld said as he picked up the boy and stood with Rufus in his arms. "We should get him to Hojo."

"No," Sephiroth protested before he could censure himself. The gut wrenching horror he felt at the idea of just _giving_ the fragile boy to Hojo, bypassing his common sense that openly protesting anything about one of the president's favorites to a Turk was not the best idea.

"We need someone well versed with Mako and its properties," Veld said. "Hojo is loyal to the company."

"Hojo is loyal to himself," Cloud muttered. Veld gave him a level look, pointedly waiting for further explaination.

"It is convenient for him to appear loyal to the Company," Sephiroth added hesitantly struggling to put into words he had barely dared to think least they be found by Hojo's ever watchful assistants and ground down like every other attempt at rebellion he had ever suffered. "If he finds an interesting pursuit he will follow it no matter the costs. President Shinra encourages his… behavior."

"If he hurts the boy he would be out of ShinRa, out of funding," Veld said slowly, testing the logic.

"As long as it was interesting, he wouldn't care," Sephiroth explained. "Hojo is a man of impulse."

"Unfortunately he is the only one we know who is familiar with Mako addiction," Veld said. "We don't have a choice."

"Mideel," Cloud said.

"What?"

"There's a clinic at Mideel, they study the Mako springs there." Mideel was not a Company town, but they weren't overtly anti-ShinRa either.

"It has to be better than Hojo," Sephiroth said.

"It's your call, Veld," Cloud said. Protecting the Shinra family was one of the Turk's primary duties.

Veld gave Sephiroth a hard look. "You think Hojo would be a danger to the boy?"

"I think Hojo would find having a Mako addicted child in his care too great an opportunity to resist," Sephiroth said, remembering needles and scalpels and green, green, green.

Veld looked down at the boy in his arms and his brow creased in thought. Sephiroth held his breath as he waited for the man to make his decision.

"Alright, we'll head for Mideel." Sephiroth hoped that his relief wasn't too obvious.

"What will you tell Hojo?" Cloud asked softly.

Veld shrugged, "I'll come up with something."

It took them longer to leave then Sephiroth expected. They had to organize transport to Mideel not only for themselves, but for the other mutated children that the Co-op had exploited. The search of the mine yielded more children, none of them were mutated as noticeably as the group driven into the marshes, but all of them were rounded up for transport to Mideel. They also had to direct the troopers with packing all of the Co-op's records to send on to the Accounting Department for auditing, and the handful of prisoners who had to be shipped to the holding cells in Junon. Veld also had to contact his secretary in Midgar to organize warrants for any off-site Co-op employees to be rounded up and questioned.

Even while on the phone and confirming the termination clauses on the warrants he did not once put Rufus down. Both Cloud and one of Sephiroth's Corporals who had been helping with the children offered to take the boy off of his hands. But the man only shook his head and held on tighter.

… … …

"I had a daughter about his age," Veld said softly. They were sitting in the cargo hold of a small airship that had been dispatched to carry them to Mideel when Veld made the sudden declaration.

Not knowing if he was supposed to respond, Sephiroth looked around. His section came with them to help herd the kids and cast Dark when they start to get fussy. A few of the troopers complained about the baby-sitting duty, but most acted professionally and kept their cursing to a minimum. None of them, however, were close enough to be Veld's intended audience. Cloud was nowhere to be seen either, he had mumbled something about motion sickness and promptly disappeared. Sephiroth just copied Cloud's usual mannerisms and made a non-committal noise, more a hum than anything else and let Veld interpret that as he would.

"You remember the… fire in Kalm about a year ago?" Sephiroth didn't but he nodded anyway. "I buried my wife, but we couldn't find my daughter. Searched the survivors, searched the dead. I would have stayed and combed through the ashes if they would have let me."

"I'm sorry," Sephiroth said, uncomfortably.

Veld just shook his head and brushed the hair out of Rufus' face. "Someone could have taken her in the chaos, just as easily as they took Rufus. She could be any of these children, mutated beyond recognition, or still trapped somewhere else under an invalid contract."

Was he supposed to respond to that? Sephiroth hummed again, and wished that they were at Mideel already.

"I'm going to open a project to shut down operations like the Mythril Mine Co-op," Veld said. "We will need to have some trustworthy SOLDIERs to call upon for Military maneuvers. Can my department expect your co-operation with a joint venture?"

Sephiroth blinked. No one had actually asked him before. His missions were either set up through Hojo or Cloud dragging him along. After this disaster he was surprised that someone would consider him a SOLDIER worth the position.

"I'm not doing this just to find my daughter," Veld said, mistaking Sephiroth's silence for hesitation. "Organizations that exploit and abuse children like the Co-op did need to be stopped."

"You may want to start with SOLDIER, then," Cloud said. Sephiroth looked up to find him coming down the ladder into the hold.

"You okay?" Veld asked, quickly followed by, "what do you mean? ShinRa carefully checks the age and background of all applicants, no one can enter younger then twelve."

"Twelve, old enough to sign your life away," Cloud said dryly as he sat down next to Sephiroth.

"I don't make the laws, Strife," Veld said with a warning, Cloud was treading dangerously close to insubordination and anti-ShinRa sentiments. This, after everything else, made Sephiroth wonder about Veld's priorities.

Cloud just shrugged. "No, ShinRa does."

"Why?" Sephiroth asked, genuinely curious. He know that ShinRa company policy may as well be law in most places, and in Company towns it was the only law, but he never thought to question why some of the policies were set the way that they were.

"Because of the SOLDIER program," Cloud said. "The treatments take better the younger the… subject."

"And what parent would agree to sign their children away to the Military," Veld said softly. Cloud nodded. Sephiroth tried not to flinch. _His father_ had not only sent him gladly to ShinRa's military, but the entire program was based on advancements Hojo discovered while working on him. 'The treatments take better…' Sephiroth couldn't even remember when he first started getting the Mako showers and other experimental treatments. Sometimes they were all he could remember.

"I'll help," he said, the words surprising even himself. "Whatever you want. To stop that," he waved his hand at the children, no longer so frightened and playing made up games in the center of the hold. "I'll help."

Veld gave him a small smile that seemed a little rusty from disuse. "Thank you. And you, Cloud?"

"Sure," Cloud said with a shrug. "How's the kid doing?"

"No change," Veld said.

"Let me see," Cloud leaned forward and reached across Sephiroth to wipe his fingers across the boy's forehead before he pressed his palm against Rufus' temple. Cloud stared into empty blue eyes and Sephiroth could only think of how so very close Cloud was. Sephiroth's earlier desire had been based in jealousy and a desire for something he wanted to be, but now he could feel it turning to something different, a want for something he could have. He could feel Cloud's warmth through his uniform, and as Cloud leaned forward Sephiroth couldn't stop himself from staring. His eyes travelling down the column of Cloud's neck, pale skin over strong muscles. The black tank top that was almost regulation but not quite fit tightly, and he could almost see the slide of muscle as Cloud moved. The shirt also rode up a little showing more pale skin and also a few traces of old scars.

Contrary to popular belief SOLDIERs did scar, but with the aid of Cure spells, high end elixirs, and, yes, improved healing factor from the Mako showers most scars faded easily. If the wound was bad enough, infected, not treated right away or subject to a host of other events that could work in concert even a SOLDIER could be permanently scarred. The one that caught Sephiroth's eye looked fairly recent. It was a thin purple line that must be fresh. It could be anywhere from a few days to a few months depending on how deep the original wound was. Sephiroth fought the sudden urge to reach out and touch the pale lines across Cloud's back, by fisting his hand in the heavy dark cloth of his pants.

"It's not bad, he's only a little lost, not completely destroyed," Cloud said sitting back. "Did you contact his regular caretakers?"

"Yes, they are going to meet us in Mideel," Veld said looking a little puzzled. "What do you mean 'lost'?"

Cloud sat back up and Sephiroth could breathe again. "He just needs to find his way back, familiar things will help."

"Back where?"

"To his body, or his mind." Cloud said. He leaned back and closed his eyes. "I guess it depends on how you look at it."

"Are you alright?" Sephiroth asked.

"Fine, motion sickness," Cloud said.

Sephiroth frowned, that seemed like such a mundane thing to be afflicted by. "Motion sickness?"

Cloud nodded. "Fenrir is better."

"Fenrir?" Veld asked.

"His bike," Sephiroth explained when Cloud seemed disinclined to add anything further to the conversation.

Veld made a noise of understanding. "I've heard that being in control of the craft does generally alleviate the problem since the mind can anticipate and compensate for the movement."

"If that's the case shouldn't you be up on deck?" Sephiroth asked. He was baffled by Cloud's ailment, it was something he had heard of second hand but had never known anyone before who experienced it.

"I was," Cloud said. "The crew strongly suggested I come down here. Said it would help."

"You probably made them nervous," Veld said.

Cloud grunted.

"Does it help?" Sephiroth asked, curious and also trying to cover that he was struggling reconciling a host of stereotypes that only someone who was small and weak suffered from motion-sickness with the fact that it was _Cloud_.

"Not being able to see the movement? It used to."

"Not anymore?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud cracked one glowing blue eye to glance over at them. "It isn't just sight and hearing that was enhanced, it's everything."

Veld actually winced. "So, you can feel every motion?"

Cloud made a soft affirmative grunt.

"Couldn't they fix that?" Sephiroth asked, it wasn't unheard of for airships to be attacked by flying monsters, something like that could be distracting, if not debilitating if they needed to fight.

"Psychosomatic," Cloud said. "No amount of _genetic_ tinkering can cure it."

"It's what?" Sephiroth frowned, that sounded like a medical term. He was very familiar with the terms bandied about by Hojo and the other lab techs, but he also found that his second hand knowledge was extremely specialized, and he was often left out by more general terms used by the rest of the populace. It was quite irksome.

"Psychosomatic," Veld said, "is where the mind affects the body. He thinks he should be sick therefore he is."

"It is not in my head," Cloud growled unhappily.

"I didn't say it was," Veld smoothly, trying to sooth Cloud's ruffled feathers. "Most things like this are subconscious."

The noise of the children playing melded with the backdrop of the airship's droning engines as they fell into a companionable silence. After what felt like only a few moments, but was probably longer Cloud spoke up. "We're landing."

Sephiroth wondered how he could tell. The flight was smooth and seemed to be unchanging, but as he thought about it and focused his attention on the nearly imperceptible sway of the airship, he realized that they were dropping in a slow controlled motion. As he focused on the odd sinking sensation he found it making him somewhat dizzy, and quickly turned his attention back to his companions.

"We should pack the kids up," Veld suggested. Sephiroth glanced at Cloud, who was still the highest ranking officer. He should be the one giving the orders. Leaning back against the hull with his eyes still closed, he looked less inclined to participate in anything right then. Sephiroth figured that Cloud wouldn't mind delegating under the circumstances. He stood and made his way to the nearest Corporal.

"We're landing," he explained. "We need to prepare the children for transport into Mideel."

The man saluted and signaled to his fellow officer. They started herding the children together. Dark was cast on the ones who were the most light-sensitive. Sleep was cast on the youngest to keep their fussing to a minimum. Then the children were all piled into two covered trucks.

Sephiroth didn't have the necessary Materia to cast either spell but his presence seemed to help calm the children as well. He knew that they saw his eyes and thought that he was like them. They whispered it to one another. He suspected that when they saw that the men followed his orders, they felt reassured as if one of them was in charge. He didn't try to disabuse them of the notion. The truth was he was born with his eyes as they were. The unusual cat slip pupils were not created by any mutation, but were a legacy of his mother's family. At least, that's what Hojo told him.


	7. Chapter 7

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 7

… … …

Like at the entrance to the Mythril Mine the Section was broken up into the two Parties, one was assigned to each truck. Cloud and Veld rode in the first truck with the medic and Rufus, while Sephiroth and the other battle Party were assigned to the second.

Mideel proper was deep in the jungles so the airship had to land a fair distance away in a reasonably clear area. There were roads but they were just rough ruts between the trees. It was slow going and the children grumbled unhappily in the back of the truck as they were tossed from side to side. It didn't matter how easy the driver tried to make the trip; the transport vehicle just did not have the shocks to compensate for this kind of terrain.

They were a few miles outside of Mideel when the trucks ground to a complete halt. Sephiroth could hear shouting from up ahead. Worried about an ambush Sephiroth focused his attention outward to the surrounding trees. When he heard gunfire and the sharp sound of bullets ricocheting off of metal, Sephiroth decided to investigate. There had been no calls for assistance, but there hadn't been any situation reports either.

"Wait, here," he ordered as he loosened Ashura in her sheath. "Guard the children. I'm going to see what's going on."

The Corporal's mouth twisted into a tight frown, but didn't otherwise object. He simply saluted and signaled for the other men to take up ready positions around the truck.

Sephiroth wasn't sure what he was expecting to see when he came around the side of the first truck. Certainly, Cloud facing his own men with the Fusion Sword held up in guard position with the wide blade acting as a shield, wasn't one of them. He was standing protectively over a large orange cat-like monster with a tail flickering with a flame-like light. The monster was huddled close to the ground and Sephiroth could read the fear in every line of the crouched feline's muscles. Both groups stared at one another over the expanse of open road.

"Status report," Sephiroth snapped, demanding that someone explain what was going on.

"Monster attack, sir. The Major may be Confused," The Corporal heading the troopers said. The helmet allowed immediate, real-time connection to the information from the PHS, if Cloud had been compromised by a Confuse spell there would be no 'may' about it.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked.

"He's not a monster," Cloud said, nothing about not attacking though. Sephiroth weighed his options briefly and decided to trust Cloud. The children from the mines weren't monsters either.

"Stand down," Sephiroth ordered. The troopers hesitated but after a long moment obeyed. Cloud also straightened out of his battle stance. He looked down at the cat still crouched at his feet. The cat looked up at Cloud, and if anything huddled down farther.

"You're _Cloud_," it said in a small, awed voice. Sephiroth wasn't surprised so much that the cat spoke, after everything that had happened within the past 24 hours a talking great cat was almost banal. No, what surprised him was that the cat knew of Cloud, where no one had ever heard of him in Midgar.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki?" Cloud asked. Sephiroth frowned, what ties could Cloud have to the Cosmo Canyon? The "tree-hugging Cozzies" there were extremely anti-ShinRa.

"Grandfather wanted to speak with the doctors here about the Lifestream," the cat said. "He said I could come if I could stay out of trouble."

Cloud made a soft, non-committal noise. "Where's Red?"

"I am here," the voice was deep and low, another big cat emerged silently from the foliage. The first thing that caught Sephiroth's attention about the other cat was the fan of colorful feathers in its mane beaded with weapon-grade Materia, a spray of green, purple, and gold. Then his mind processed other details like how this cat was a massive battle-scarred warrior with XIII branded into its hide. It showed the other cat for the coltish youngster that it was. "I heard gunfire."

Young Nanaki bounded forward towards Red. "I found ShinRa while on patrol!" it-he?-reported excitedly.

Red bowled the smaller cat over with cuff from his paw, claws still sheathed. The larger cat growled his displeasure at Nanaki. The low rumbling sound was more fitting for a wolf then a cat. "Foolish cub, what is the purpose of throwing yourself on your enemies' weapons?"

"It's honorable to…" anything more Nanaki might have said was drowned out by a snarl from Red that had his men shifting their grip on their guns.

"Do not speak to me of honor. Honor does not demand that you throw your life away, but that it must be paid for in blood and pain." Sweet Shiva, it was like Angeal… having an argument with himself… in fur.

"But I wasn't hurt," Nanaki protested. "Cloud saved me. Cloud, Cloud's hurt!"

Red lightly cuffed the younger cat again. "It is not polite to announce your ally's injuries to the enemy."

"Cloud?" Sephiroth turned to his mentor. He could smell the tang of blood on the air, now that his attention wasn't solely focused on the two cats, but Cloud's dark uniform hid the wound well.

"I'm fine," He said shortly.

Sephiroth mentally reached for the Cure spell in his bracer. "Let me see."

"Later, we need to get the kids to the clinic first."

"Some things never change." Red snorted softly. He glanced at Sephiroth. "When you do get around to pinning him down…" And wasn't that a mental image that Sephiroth needed right then, especially since he was reasonably certain that he wouldn't be the one doing the pinning. "Make sure he casts Esuna to prevent any infections."

Not an unreasonable request. Sephiroth nodded his assent. "Yes, sir," he said responding automatically to the commanding tone.

Red nudged Nanaki off the road. "Let them by."

"But," Nanaki protested. "They're ShinRa!"

"So is Cloud," Sephiroth pointed out, though not really. He suspected the nuances would be lost on the young cat anyway. Nanaki blinked at him then stared at Cloud, looking completely shocked by the notion.

"Move," Red growled, sending the younger cat scurrying off the road. He followed at a more sedate pace.

"We'd best move it ourselves," Cloud said. "The clinic isn't far from here."

Sephiroth made his way back to his post on the second truck and relayed the order to keep moving. He had a lot more to think about. A few more pieces of the puzzle that was Cloud, and he didn't care for where these pieces were fitting. Cosmo Canyon was intensely environmentalist and anti-ShinRa. Although Cloud did occasionally tread the line with some anti-ShinRa statements, he'd never acted against the Company that Sephiroth was aware of.

The large cat, Red, seemed to know him well if the 'some things' comment was anything to go by, but the younger cat had more of the distant hero worship. Sephiroth wondered if Red had any ties to WolfHaven. Or if WolfHaven had any ties to Cosmo Canyon.

As they entered the town the road turned from worn ruts into stone paved cobbles only slightly less bumpy. The buildings were simple constructs of brick and board, and the amount of wood used would have been stunningly expensive in Midgar but here it was one of the more common building materials. The two cats paced them into town and watched from nearby as Cloud and Veld entered what Sephiroth could only assume was the clinic, as it looked no different from any of the other buildings lining the road through town. Sephiroth stayed with the transport to help calm the children who were excited that they stopped and wanted out of the trucks.

Sephiroth wished they had brought another Section along. Somewhere between the Mines and Mideel the children had gone from shy, frightened, and easily controlled into packs of wiggling curious bundles of trouble. Sephiroth didn't want the townspeople to react badly to seeing the mutated children and possibly cause them harm, so he quickly approved use of Sleep Materia to subdue the worst of the troublemakers, and the rest eventually fell into line. Then Cloud was back motioning for them to start bringing in the children. With the help of the small staff from the clinic they were able to get the children herded into the clinic where the doctors looked them over with minimal mishaps.

After the last batch was inside and the kids were stuffing their faces in the small cafeteria, Sephiroth went looking for Cloud and found him talking to Red a short distance from the Clinic. He hesitated at a familiar name.

"…minimal exposure to Jenova," Cloud was saying. "Mostly withdrawal and Mako addiction."

"I had forgotten how bad the infection of the Lifestream was," Red said with a sad shake of his head. "I'm surprised the other children don't have it worse."

"They seemed to have developed their own methods of dealing with Mako addiction and minimizing, or at least directing, the mutation," Cloud shook his head.

"Really?"

"Hmm, yes, Hojo would be horrified to know that a group of children independently developed his technique for genetic manipulation." Sephiroth started in surprise. Hojo's technique? Hojo was a paranoid bastard who kept his techniques under lock and key. How would Cloud know it enough to recognize it elsewhere? What exactly _did_ the children do?

"Children can be very clever," Red said.

"They would have to be; the ones who weren't had been culled out early and fast," Cloud observed. He half turned to look towards Sephiroth. "Sephiroth."

"Cloud," Sephiroth stepped forward, disappointed that he was noticed. "Sorry to interrupt your conversation."

"Just catching up with an old friend," Cloud said closing off any line of further questioning. "What can I help you with?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine." Cloud said with a dismissive shrug.

"Did one of the doctors look at your wound?"

"It wasn't necessary."

Sephiroth frowned. "You should have someone look at it."

"It will heal on its own in a few days."

"Cloud," Red admonished. "You promised that you were not going to do this again."

Sephiroth felt his curiosity pique. Again? Cloud has done this before? Sephiroth wondered how bad the wound had been that the big cat was able to extract such a promise.

"It's a bullet wound, not a life threatening disease." Cloud shifted back defensively, and he wouldn't look Red in the eye.

"Even SOLDIER can be subject to infection," Sephiroth said. Granted, it took a lot to overcome their boosted immune system but that was hardly an excuse to ignore a wound no matter how small. And, while bullet wounds may be small, they were the worst. They caused multiple types of damage, not just to the open wound area, but percussive damage to the surrounding tissue by being hit with such force. If the bullet was lodged inside or, worse, shattered, even Sephiroth's skill at Materia and field medicine would be taxed. "Was it a through-and-through, or do you need to have the bullet removed?"

There was an uncomfortably long silence after Sephiroth asked the question.

"Did you even _look_ at it? Let me see it." He demanded.

Cloud opened his mouth to protest again.

"Let him look at it," Red said. "It would ease your friends' minds."

"It's on my hip." Cloud gave Red a dark look, but finally consented to having Sephiroth examine his wound. He unbuckled and lowered the waistband of his pants from his right hip. The material stuck somewhat and had to be pulled free. There was a long shallow gash, which started bleeding again, where the bullet grazed him.

It really was minor. Cloud was right, it would've healed up fine on its own, but the standard procedure was that you did not leave a wound to go untreated, no matter how minor, where there was no pressing need to expend resources elsewhere. At Red's prompting Cloud cast an Esuna spell as well, though he rolled his eyes while doing so.

Sephiroth in turn cast a simple Cure and the wound closed leaving line of fresh pink skin. He felt the urge to reach out and wipe away the bright smear of blood marring Cloud's pale skin, to see if the skin was a soft as it looked. Before he could do anything, Cloud pulled away and straightened his clothes.

"If you two are finished mothering me, I am going to go check in with Veld now," Cloud grumbled as he walked away.

Red shook his head and let out a sigh. "I wish Cloud would remember that he doesn't have to do everything by himself."

"I would think that there was very little that Cloud could not do by himself," Sephiroth said, trying to defend his mentor in some small way.

" 'Could' and 'should' are two very different things," Red said. "But I suppose that old habits die hard."

"You know Cloud well?" Sephiroth asked.

Red turned his head to examine Sephiroth with his one good eye. "I cannot say that I am as close to Cloud as some of the others were, but we are friends, yes."

"Others?" Sephiroth asked. "Cloud doesn't seem to have many friends at ShinRa."

"No, I imagine not," Red said, sounding amused. "Though you seem to be getting along with him fairly well."

"He has agreed to mentor me, informally," Sephiroth said.

"Really?" Red sounded so genuinely surprised by the revelation that Sephiroth felt like he should be insulted. Why wouldn't he be good enough for Cloud?

"He said I was the best. He asked for me for back up on this mission," Sephiroth protested, he may have screwed up this mission, but after that initial lecture Cloud didn't seem to be too upset with him, and Cloud implied that he was still willing to train Sephiroth. So, at least Cloud thought that he had potential.

Red gave him another long look with his one eye before growling, "I hope he knows what he's doing."

Before he could say anything more, Nanaki bounded up with a mouthful of bloody fur, practically quivering in excited anticipation. "Red! Red! Look wha' I caugh'."

"Excuse me," Red said with a long suffering sigh.

Sephiroth frowned as he watched the big cat sauntered off with the youngster dancing around him. Red made it sound like Cloud was making a mistake in mentoring him. Why? Why should the cat care about it one way or the other?

… … …

The work the clinic did with Rufus and the other children from the Mythril Mine was very different from what Sephiroth was expecting. Given his previous experience, Sephiroth would have expected a lot of Mako showers interspersed with various tests designed to measure various esoteric vectors. Even though that was a large part of why he had argued so vehemently against taking them to Hojo, it still provided the basis for his expectations.

That's not to say that there wasn't Mako or blood tests. The Mako was heavily diluted with distilled water and a potion mix so the body could more easily adjust to it. Also, it was given orally instead of the immersion method that Hojo preferred. All of the children needed to be on some kind of Mako regiment to adjust for suddenly no longer wading through it fourteen plus hours a day or they would have withdrawal symptoms as bad, if not worse, then Rufus'. And there were blood tests, though only a few, to test for a battery of potential diseases and infections.

Rufus was a slightly different matter. He had not reacted well to his initial exposure to Mako, and his mind had… gone away. The exact explanation on what happened to Rufus' mind was vague and varied from the scientific to the mystical depending on whom Sephiroth asked. The long and short of it was that his mind had taken a brief hiatus from his body, or that it was locked inside turned in on itself and unresponsive to most outside stimulus. He was surrounded by familiar things and people in hopes that it would draw him back. Oddly Cloud was one of those people who spent a lot of time with the boy. From what Sephiroth understood of the situation, while Cloud was unfamiliar to Rufus and unable to help directly, he was familiar with the process and was helping Rufus' Turk caretakers 'look' for him.

No one had any idea how long it would take.

The men were bivouacked in a cleared lot towards the edge of town. ShinRa only allowed paid accommodations for officers and wounded. If there weren't any bases nearby, the men had to rough it. They had one room rented at the inn as per protocol, but it was only occasionally used by Cloud when he was too tired to make it all the way back to their tent. Sephiroth found it ironic that Cloud was the one who insisted on staying with the troops, and his explanation that it forged a sense of loyalty and solidarity made little sense when they weren't going to keep the command. However, there was difference in the air and attitudes of the men as the days wore on. Though Sephiroth interacted little with them he did pull is fair share of camp duty and the ugly remarks that had plagued the flight to the mine faded to a less critical 'bit stand-offish, but okay.'

In his free time, of which Sephiroth had an unsettling amount, he did research. He wished he had thought to bring the WolfHaven data disk with him. He could have used the downtime to study it, but between his PHS connection to the ShinRa intranet and the Mideel clinic's library he had access to a surprising amount of information. The first thing he learned was that Hojo actually published his work in scientific journals.

Sephiroth was uncertain if he was surprised or not. ShinRa probably held proprietary rights to all of Hojo's work, and the Company was very protective of its secrets. What didn't surprise him was Hojo's need for validation. The details weren't published, at least not that anyone who wasn't already intimately familiar with the process would recognize, and it wasn't published _as_ his work, but as thought experiments and couched in abstract terms. After having been on the receiving end of some of those "thought experiments" Sephiroth knew that they were very real and reading the details in cold clinical terms made his skin crawl. Difficult as it was, he couldn't stop reading more in horrific fascination either.

When it got to be too much to think about he took Ashura to the surrounding jungle. The monsters were reasonably challenging. Most of the troopers stayed close to town and even Sephiroth didn't go out without double checking his Materia and potions supply. It rarely took him very long to find an opponent, and currently Sephiroth was faced with a hippogriff. Ashura danced and wove red ribbons through the air. The monster was tenacious, though, snarling and hanging on with claw and wickedly sharp beak.

The exercise may have been intended to clear his head but the influx of new information and revelations dogged him even out here. Not all of it was horrific detailing of Hojo's work. The one thing that saved his faith in humanity and actually raised his opinion of scientists was that there were also a number of rebuttals and detractors arguing against Hojo's work in letters and full length articles. Much of it was lengthy philosophical debates of ethics, ubermensch, transhumanism, and eugenics. Some of it was downright vitriolic. Sephiroth was able to understand most of the articles by piecing together what he knew from the terms and other bits picked up in the labs when the doctors and technicians would talk freely around him. It had always been that no matter how intelligent he was, they never regarded him as anything more than a subject and a thing of little consequence.

A sharp pain as the hippogriff got in a solid swipe brought his attention back to the present. It wasn't bad, not worth a Cure. He preferred to take care of those things after the battle when the monsters were all dead. All the monsters that weren't him at least.

The mechanics behind SOLDIER were nothing more than a series of guided mutations turning people into monsters, just like the WolfHaven tape said. Hojo referred to something called a "mutation vector" in his articles that had the ability to copy DNA from one subject, graft it to a second and cause the cells to regenerate with the new traits. Sephiroth suspected that the mutation vector was what Hojo called J-cells in the lab, which, according to the lecture, was actually the Jenova virus. The J-cells were vital for Hojo's work on Sephiroth, and with the SOLDIER program. And probably the key in how the Mythril Mine children had been mutated as well if Red and Cloud really knew what they were talking about.

The series of strikes and blocks were mostly performed automatically as his mind wandered elsewhere. What worried him the most was the effect this had on the mind. The lecture said that Jenova drove him insane, or he was already crazy. That part wasn't clear. Professor Dessau was very clear, however, in that the Jenova virus could drive people to act in ways they wouldn't otherwise. The Mako whispering things that no one else could hear was bad enough. But maybe was that really the Jenova virus? The whispers he heard never seemed to be directed at him, but who was to say that wouldn't change. Was that how it drove him crazy? All these new questions with no answers were driving him crazy.

Seeing an opening, Sephiroth dove forward and slashed at the hippogriff's flank. Not a killing wound, but a debilitating one. The creature took to the air in a flurry of dust and feathers that stung Sephiroth's eyes. It hovered just out of reach, but didn't flee. Sephiroth brought Ashura up into a guard position and waited for an opportunity to bring the thing down.

His mind though, just wouldn't settle. Those worries didn't even touch on the matter of what mutations affecting the brain might do to someone's personality. Because there needed to be mutations to the brain to allow it to correctly interpret information from the adjusted senses, and if Hojo was making those necessary changes, who knew what else he was doing for no reason all? Unfortunately the clinic's archive was not complete. Early works were missing and some issues were checked out. If Hojo had published results of changes performed to the human brain they were not available to Sephiroth here.

If he were to judge SOLDIER's current behaviors, they weren't exactly a uniform lot. Many had strange quirks-Genesis' obsessive focus on literature, Myrilee's constant attention seeking that regularly landed her in Midgar's gossip rags, Roman's womanizing with a girl in every sector above and under plate. But was that a sign of their individual personality, or was there something in the mutations that added or aggravated those traits? He could look to the children instead. Some of them, like Camille, would have needed similar mutations to the brain to adapt to her eyes. As for behavior, Sephiroth was hardly a knowledgeable judge. The mutated children didn't seem to be any more monstrous than any other Mideel child playing in the sand. They were perhaps a little more wary of adults, which was not unreasonable given their kidnapping and ill treatment by the Co-op miners.

Sephiroth had been surprised by the locals' easy acceptance of the children. Apparently the people here were familiar with the possibility of mutation, though they associated it with the Mako itself rather than the Jenova virus. The two were clearly connected, if Red's comment was true and the Lifestream, a natural source of Mako, actually was infected then it must be a carrier for the virus. Given the intense battery of shots and concentrated Mako that the SOLDIER treatments required, the children from the mines were probably far less mutated then the average SOLDIER. The difference being that the SOLDIER's had Hojo and other technitions to watch the mutation and stop it before it progressed too far. The children didn't, which meant that they looked more monstrous then the SOLDIERs.

Finally, the hippogriff landed, Sephiroth stepped forward into a fast, hard strike, a killing blow.

"You've gotten better with the katana," Cloud's familiar voice came from behind him. Sephiroth tried not to jump at Cloud's unexpected appearance. He had been so lost in the fight, and his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping with the boy?" Sephiroth hoped that did not sound as bitter to Cloud as it did to him.

"He woke about an hour ago," Cloud said. "Camille and Nanaki are showing him around the clinic. I thought I'd see how you were holding up."

Sephiroth was glad that the boy was recovering, he felt a little bad about his earlier jealousy, but he was still relieved that Cloud would be spending time with him once again. After that discussion with Red, Sephiroth worried that Cloud would change his mind about mentoring him. It wasn't like they had any formal agreement lodged with ShinRa. What had seemed like an additional layer of protection against Hojo controlling Sephiroth's life through the Company was also one less tie between them. Cloud could just stop at any time for any or no reason at all.

"I've been doing fine," Sephiroth said. He followed as Cloud motioned Sephiroth to walk with him. "Bored out of my mind."

"Really?" Cloud asked sounding genuinely surprised. He was silent for a thoughtful moment. "How would you fortify the town?"

Sephiroth did not groan, through great act of will. He really had walked into that one. "Against what?"

The town was deep in the thick jungle, it was fairly easy to surround the place without being noticed, but the firebreak between the tree line and the first of the houses could be quickly converted into a simple ditch and wall…

"A WEAPON," Cloud said, and then proceeded to outline statistics of something horrifically large and powerful. Sephiroth didn't think about it for very long.

"You don't," he said simply. "You set up lookouts and organize an evacuation plan, then move people into hiding as soon as it's spotted coming your way. Once it's gone you can come back and pick up the pieces."

After a long moment Cloud nodded. "I've seen your work with the katana improve, how's your hand-to-hand?"

"It's not my primary," Sephiroth shrugged. Barehanded was not his preferred method of fighting, but a grounding in it was required of all ShinRa combat divisions.

"The weapons are just the tools that we use," Cloud said as he took the Fusion Sword from its place at his back and planted it deeply into the ground. Sephiroth briefly considered doing the same with Ashura but she was much lighter and would not hinder him in a barehanded fight like the Fusion Sword could for Cloud, so he left her in her sheath on his back. "What would you do without your sword?"

Sephiroth knew that there was only one answer to that. He lifted his gloved fists back up into ready position. "Fight."

They took up ready fighting stances. Deep in the jungle there was little undergrowth between the massive trees that provided the thick canopy high overhead. After a few quick passes Cloud easily knocked aside Sephiroth's defense, and pulled a punch that would have probably broken something if he hadn't.

"Stand down," Cloud said signaling the end of the sparring session. Sephiroth straightened into parade rest. "Run through the first form."

"Yes, sir." Sephiroth dropped into the first side block. The first form was to barehanded fighting what the seventh was for swords, a simple run through of all the basic blocks and attacks. After the first few movements Cloud stopped him.

"Adjust your stance wider," Cloud said. "Same distance as if you're carrying."

Sephiroth did as he asked, then continued with the next movement.

"Arm up. Don't pull back your trailing hand."

He hesitated. Proper stance did call for it. So Cloud's order wasn't unreasonable, but one of his early instructors had always taught him otherwise, and no one had called him on it since arriving at ShinRa. "Respectfully, sir, I was taught to pull the arm back to minimize telegraphing the strike and to be ready when an opening appears."

"Very aggressive style," Cloud noted. "Good as a primary, but as a fall back you want to focus on defense. Arm up."

Sephiroth did as he asked but it felt awkward and unfamiliar. "As a fall back shouldn't I focus on offense to take them down quickly?"

"No," Cloud said shortly. "You need time to assess the situation and rally an offensive strategy."

"But if I can attack first…"

Cloud shook his head. "If you are using your secondary, you've already lost initiative. Start over the first form, properly this time."

Sephiroth bit back another irritable retort. With greater strength a fast, solid hit with or without a weapon should give any enemy pause, regardless of the circumstances, but Cloud was not going to budge on this one so he moved through the first form with his arm up as instructed.

"Hold," Cloud said and Sephiroth froze in place. He winced as took in his stance. This movement called for a front hand jab and with his trailing arm still tucked back he was left completely unprotected. Even a low guard would be better than this open feeling of complete vulnerability. Cloud didn't criticize or punish Sephiroth, simply waited for him to understand the error.

Sephiroth could console himself that there were few things that would be able to take advantage of that opening, but against those things that could it would be fatal if he was it _was_ a weakness. And as much as it galled him to admit a weakness, especially such a long standing one, Sephiroth was not foolish enough to allow it to continue either.

"I have to be perfect," he whispered softly to himself. The small feather charm on Ashura's hilt chimed in agreement.

"What was that?" Cloud asked.

Sephiroth blushed slightly. He hadn't meant to be overheard. Most other SOLDIERs may have had enhanced hearing, but they shouldn't have caught that. "I said, 'I know I have to be perfect.'"

Cloud's expression darkened. "Perfection is an illusion."

"Sir?" Sephiroth asked, voice soft and uncertain.

"Nothing is perfect, not man or god," Cloud said with a small, bitter smile. "That way lies madness."

The idea was so alien it took Sephiroth a moment to process it. "But… Hojo said…"

Cloud _snarled_, and ugly animal sound that had Sephiroth stepping back, half reaching for Ashura's hilt before he remembered that this was _Cloud_. "Hojo is not always right."

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth agreed quickly, not wanting to press or antagonize the other man any further when he wasn't sure how Cloud was going to react. Cloud took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Sorry." He said softly.

Sephiroth waited, adrenalin still rushing through his system, poised between fight and flight, but the uncertainty left him frozen. Back when Sephiroth was looking he could find no records of a Cloud Strife ever having worked in the Science Department, but there were other ways to run afoul of Hojo then as an employee. Sephiroth wondered how far into the Science Department's records his clearance levels could get him.


	8. Chapter 8

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 8

… … …

After Cloud regained control of this temper, Sephiroth settled back onto his heels and waited. Cloud offered no explanations, simply motioned for him to continue the forms as if nothing had happened. Cloud corrected his stance and his arm position repeatedly as he worked through the first form. Cloud called a halt after a few moments.

"I thought you'd pick up on this quicker," Cloud said. "Seems like you have to learn the hard way. Give me Ashura."

With a lead in like that, Sephiroth was almost certain that he wasn't going to like where the lesson was heading, but he didn't want Cloud to stop teaching him either. And, he wanted to break this habit. Now that he was aware of how dangerous it could be he refused to let it get the better of him. Sephiroth unstrapped Ashura and reluctantly passed Cloud the sheathed blade. Cloud took it and laid it on the ground behind him near the Fusion Sword.

"Your goal is to reach Ashura and arm yourself," Cloud said. "Now, fighting stance."

As soon as Sephiroth dropped into ready Cloud attacked. It was all Sephiroth could do to hold him at bay, and he was constantly pressing Sephiroth's right side, the side Sephiroth had turned slightly away from him. The arm he kept pulling back. When Sephiroth wasn't able to bring his arm up in time to block he took a light hit on the hip and side. Not hard, but enough that he knew he had gotten hit. He was probably going to need a cure when they were finished.

Cloud was relentless, not giving Sephiroth a chance to rally or respond, only fend off attacks. After what could have been a minute, maybe two, but felt like an eternity. Cloud eased up, slowed and settled into a steady pattern. High, low, high, mid, low, repeat. It gave Sephiroth room to think, and not just react. Sephiroth also notice that his arm was pulled up in a defensive position, but whenever it dropped, Cloud would break the pattern to strike.

Sephiroth needed to get to his sword. He needed to turn the pattern against Cloud. Sephiroth blocked the low and ducked the high, throwing a quick hard blow to Cloud's solar plexus. But Cloud wasn't there. He had danced back out of range, and nodded approvingly. He still wasn't far enough away for Sephiroth to reach Ashura.

Sephiroth pressed his attack, trying to push Cloud back and away. Even so Cloud managed to maintain control of the flow of the fight, keep himself between Sephiroth and the swords, and Sephiroth found himself circling around and somehow farther away from the swords then when he had started. He bit back a frustrated snarl and focused on Cloud. If he could figure out how Cloud was controlling the fight he might be able to do the same.

He pressed the attack again, and watched how Cloud shifted and turned, leading him around in broad circles while on the defensive. If Sephiroth couldn't push Cloud away from the swords maybe Sephiroth could do the same and lead him away.

Sephiroth eased back on the attack. Cloud didn't take up the attack immediately, so Sephiroth deliberately dropped his right hand back without following through with a rear-hand punch. That was all it took, Cloud stuck out at him. Even expecting the blow Sephiroth was barely able to get his hand back up in time to block it. He carefully stepped back and to the side, trying to lead Cloud away from the swords.

And succeeding, if Cloud figured out what he was doing was unclear but he followed just as Sephiroth had followed him previously. But now that Sephiroth was controlling the flow of the fight he was uncertain where he wanted to go with it.

He considered the layout of the area they were fighting in. The thick canopy prevented much of the undergrowth that he was more familiar with in sims of forested areas. However, it wasn't completely clear either. Tree trunks rose like thick column from the ground to towering heights at irregular intervals. A rough plan formed in Sephiroth's mind. He began leading Cloud away from the swords, through the trees.

After circling part-way around a particularly large tree, Sephiroth could see the glint of steel out of the corner of his eye. The Fusion Sword marked where Ashura lay as well. He dropped his rear-had deliberately again, this time catching Cloud's arm when he lunged forward to strike. Sephiroth kicked Cloud's legs out from under him, but instead of bearing down on him to pin him to the ground like the move was designed, Sephiroth dropped Cloud's arm and made a break for the swords. The purpose of the exercise, he had to keep in mind, was not to defeat Cloud but to arm himself.

Sephiroth knew that they were fairly evenly matched on strength and speed, so given a head start he should be able to reach the swords first. How much of a head start would determine whether Sephiroth would have the time to arm himself before Cloud caught up to him.

His fingers were just curling around Ashura's hilt when Cloud crashed into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground. By the time everything righted itself Sephiroth found himself pinned down on his back with Cloud holding him down. The band securing his braid was a hard knot in the small of his back. It also pulled his head back uncomfortably exposing his throat to Cloud.

"Do you yield?" Cloud asked softly. Maybe it was the low voice or the vulnerable position, but whatever the cause the result was heat pooling low in his stomach. Sephiroth knew that if he didn't get Cloud off of him soon both of them were going to get an uncomfortable reminder of what exactly Cloud was pressing against.

"No." But he wasn't just going to give up either. He kicked one leg up and managed to hook his foot around Cloud's throat, pulling him back and off of Sephiroth. After a solid follow-up kick to Cloud's stomach Sephiroth scrambled to his feet.

Before he could get his bearings again Cloud had him back on the ground, face down this time, pressing into the soft loam. Sephiroth struggled against Cloud, but all of his blood was rushing to his now raging erection, pausing long enough to bring a bright flush to his cheeks, made it difficult to focus on what he should be doing. Or remembering why he wanted to push Cloud off.

"Do you yield?" Cloud asked again, his voice soft and low, hot breath ghosting against Sephiroth's ear. Sephiroth couldn't help the soft groan that escaped, at the sudden _need_ twisting inside of him. Cloud loosened his grip and pulled away.

"No!" Sephiroth snarled. He struggled to get his hands under him, to push against Cloud's weight, pushing aside the errant thought that he just didn't want Cloud to let go. Cloud's grip tightened and Sephiroth was slammed hard against the ground.

"Alright," Cloud agreed, sounding more amused than anything.

Sephiroth struggled, but there was no way to force the leverage he needed to push Cloud off like the last time. Sephiroth tried to relax, focus on the situation and his available options.

"You can't get out of this, you know," Cloud said casually, relaxed like he could keep Sephiroth pinned in place all day if he needed to. _He probably could_.

"Doesn't it defeat the purpose of the lesson?" Sephiroth asked between pants. His breath came in fast short bursts that caused the silver fringe of his hair that had fallen into his face to dance in front of his eyes.

"Not at all," Cloud said. "The goal is not necessarily the lesson."

"What was the lesson then?" Sephiroth asked, shifting slightly under Cloud's weight.

"You tell me."

Sephiroth considered their discussion before the fight, considered the general nature of most of Cloud's lessons. The purpose was rarely as straight forward as a simple weapons or sparring session. Most of them focused on- "You wanted me to think, analyze your pattern and form a response to reach my goal while fighting."

That was something that was easier said than done. Most fights rarely lasted longer than a few moments and depended on reactions and muscle memory to respond to the immediate threat. Someone who _was_ able to analyze, plan, and respond on the fly would make a very dangerous opponent.

"Very good," Cloud said. "And what can you tell my about your current situation."

Sephiroth scowled and didn't want to admit it, but Cloud was right. He wasn't getting up unless Cloud let him up. He tapped out, his hand tapping Cloud lightly on the leg twice, the only bit of him Sephiroth could reach. "I yield."

Cloud stood up and held out a hand to help Sephiroth to his feet. Fortunately, his hormones had finally subsided enough that he was able to stand and brush himself off without any embarrassment. Cloud handed him Ashura, the swords were a few paces away.

"I'm surprise all our crashing around hasn't attracted any monsters," Sephiroth noted.

Cloud showed Sephiroth his armband that had several independent Materia, active and glowing with a soft purple light. They ranged in color from a pale lavender quartz to a rich dark aubergine. Cloud pointed at one of the darker ones. "Enemy Away. It's not foolproof but it wards off most things."

Sephiroth felt his eyebrows rise up. He had heard of Enemy Lure, but this sounded infinitely more useful. He was surprised that it wasn't marketed more heavily to civilians as a protective measure. But then the choices that ShinRa made as a business did not always make logical sense.

"We should get back." Cloud said. The green twilight under the canopy was fading to darkness. Neither he nor Cloud had any difficulty seeing, but it was getting late and they probably already missed dinner.

Once back in Mideel the setting sun still lit the western skies. They found Rufus, Nanaki and a group of other children from both the mines and town playing an incomprehensible game that seemed to involve ushering a leather ball made from scrap cloth from one end of the street to the other under the Veld's watchful eye.

"I see you found him," Veld said as they approached, not taking his eyes off of the smiling blond boy in the middle of the small pack of children.

Cloud made a non-committal grunt. He ambled to a stop next to Veld to watch the children, and, having nothing better to do, Sephiroth followed suit. "So, what's the verdict?"

"The doctors want him to stick around for a few more days," Veld said. "Make sure he doesn't relapse."

"Do we have a few more days?"

"It's cutting it a little close," Veld said. "The president wants his son back, and Hojo is chomping at the bit to get his hands on the boy."

"Hmm," Cloud said watching the children. They ceased playing their game and instead Rufus, Camille and Nanaki stood in the center of the group, it was difficult to isolate their voices and decipher what they were arguing about amidst the din of the other children shouting.

Rufus turned and pushed his way through the crowd. Veld stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against and stood straight as the boy broke free from the kids and ran to him. Rufus' face was red and blotchy, blinking back tears that beaded on thick eyelashes but didn't fall.

"Rufus, what's wrong?" Veld asked.

"They said that ShinRa is killing the planet," Rufus cried. "They said that my dad was sucking the life out of the planet with the reactors and he was killing us all!"

Sephiroth couldn't help the sharp intake of air at the boy's outburst. They should have realized that with Cosmo Canyon elements in town Anti-ShinRa sentiment would be running high. Add to that the fact that the Mythril Mine Co-op was well known as a ShinRa company and what happened to the children had already made quick rounds through the local gossip network. The fact that it was ShinRa SOLDIER and ShinRa troops who rescued them was conspicuously absent from the rumors.

"He wouldn't do that, would he?" There was slight doubting tremor in that question, a boy questioning the omnipotence of a father who always seemed larger than life. Sephiroth could relate, and he didn't envy Veld the job of figuring out what to tell the boy.

"Did they say that your father was killing the planet?" Cloud asked. "Or that the reactors were?"

Rufus jumped and stared at Cloud in surprise. He glanced up into the Cloud's glowing Mako eyes and ducked a little more towards the other side of Veld. "Um… there's a difference?"

Shinra and ShinRa were virtually synonymous in most people's minds, so trying to make the distinction seemed odd. Sephiroth couldn't see why Cloud would do so, but Veld looked to Cloud with his head cocked to the side, clearly willing to let Cloud take the lead and see where he was going with it.

"It's not an unreasonable fear considering some of the beliefs people have that Mako is the blood of the Planet," Cloud said. Rufus's mouth pursed into an unhappy pout. "But even if it is true, there are more people behind the reactors then just your father. I'm sure that he wouldn't try to _maliciously_ kill the planet and everyone on it."

The short speech seemed to have drained Cloud of his quota of words for the day so he leaned back against the building and crossed his arms, clearly finished. Sephiroth frowned as he considered Cloud's words. The stress Cloud placed on 'maliciously' implied that Shinra would be more than happy to kill the planet given other scenarios. A quick glance and Veld's frown told Sephiroth that he wasn't the only one to catch the odd inflection.

Veld, however, turned to Rufus with a nod. "ShinRa has special divisions of people who work very hard to make sure the reactors are safe, because we understand your new friends' concerns, and we want to do what's best for everyone, okay?"

Rufus frowned as he thought over the new information. Eventually he relented with a hesitant nod. "Okay."

"Great now why don't you go play…" Veld glanced up. The crowd of children had mostly dispersed, being called home by parents or shuffled back into the clinic for their evening dose of Mako and dinner. "Fetch with Nanaki."

Rufus glanced between Veld and Nanaki, and scowled. "Fine, but I get to throw this time."

"You'll have to work that out with Nanaki," Veld said. Nanaki's ears perked forward and his tail quivered, but he remained seated in the middle of the road waiting for them to finish talking. Rufus waved at him and together they ran off to look for a suitable stick, arguing over who got the privilege of throwing.

After they were out of earshot, but not far enough to lose sight of, Veld turned to Cloud. "Care to explain."

Cloud shrugged. "Didn't want him to alienate his new fiends."

He's got few enough as it is, went unsaid.

Veld sighed. "He's only going to be here a few more days."

Cloud didn't say anything, merely looked at Veld who sighed and nodded as if conceding a point.

"I know kids can be cruel," Veld said. "But the boy is too young to understand the complexities of the world and Anti-ShinRa ideologies."

"He's Shinra," Cloud said with another half shrug. "He'll have to learn eventually."

"He doesn't need to learn here, where he can identify with the potential terrorists," Veld said.

"And yet, you let him play with Nanaki," Cloud pointed out.

Veld scowled at Cloud. "I don't think I could stop him. Those two and that girl, Camille, have been attached to each other since Rufus woke up."

"If you were really worried about it, you could pack him up and let Hojo handle the observation," Cloud pointed out.

"I _could_, but," Veld hesitated. "His caretakers have said that this was the happiest that they've seen him in years."

"Hn," Cloud grunted softly.

"He doesn't even get on with other employee's kids," Veld went on. "The day-care workers are afraid of his father and, by extension, of him, and the kids pick up on it. Until just now it hadn't seemed like the kids here cared or even knew who he was."

There was a high pitched yowl from nearby. Sephiroth jumped and reflexively reached for Ashura. Veld just let out a sigh. "Excuse me. I need to go check on our two little darlings, before they kill each other."

As Veld hurried away Sephiroth turned to see Cloud with a satisfied smirk on his face. It startled Sephiroth at first, but his mind started working through the possibilities. This was important. He didn't know why but this interaction with Rufus was important to Cloud and his purpose. If only Sephiroth could figure out _why_.

Cloud caught Sephiroth watching, and his face was wiped clean of all expression. Cloud pushed off from the wall. "C'mon, I've got a small unit tactics manual I'd like you to review."

… … …

Once they returned from Mideel, Rufus was whisked away by his father. Hojo never got a chance to lay a finger on the boy as he seemed fine. Sephiroth also hadn't forgotten his self assigned task of raiding the Science Department's records. The information was completely unassailable with numerous firewalls and passwords that were beyond Sephiroth skill at hacking through the system. However, he also knew that Hojo was exceedingly lazy and saved his passwords on the computer in his office. Sephiroth already had all the necessary keycards to get to Hojo's office without question, Hojo preferred to have Sephiroth come up to his lab rather than going down to the SOLDIER floor or Deepground, so it was theoretically a simple matter of breaking in to the professor's office when he was out. Catching him out of the office however, was another matter entirely.

Fortunately, it was only a few days after returning from Mideel before Sephiroth had an opportunity, though his impatience made it feel like forever. Hojo was testing some new construct in the training rooms on the SOLDIER floor, probably because those were the only ones that could take the abuse. The few assistants that were still on the floor were busy and distracted, and used enough to his presence that they barely noticed his passing.

Once inside Sephiroth found the office a familiar array of stacked reports and journals littering every available surface. Thick books and cases of data disks were crammed into the bookshelves lining two of the four walls, the third looked out onto the open floor of the Science Department through a one way mirror and the fourth contained the door and a battered leather couch pushed up against the wall.

Sephiroth seated himself at the desk and turned on the computer. Clicking quickly through the password requests he brought up the main menu for the department's records. An array of nearly every letter in the alphabet greeted him and Sephiroth carefully considered where to start. He remembered Dr Weber explaining that ShinRa currently preferred to name their projects after the first letter of the subject. So with a shrug, and no better ideas, Sephiroth clicked on 'C'.

Project C opened up with a list of video recordings the newest posted first dated June 10. Sephiroth couldn't remember if that was before or after Cloud started at ShinRa. The oldest, Sephiroth scrolled down, started five years ago. That was a long time to be in Hojo's clutches. Sephiroth wasn't entirely familiar with all of Hojo's various projects and knew that the man tended to flit from one to another as the interest took him, pawning them off onto various lab assistants the rest of the time.

He clicked on one of the video recordings randomly. What met him was not Cloud but an unknown woman on the screen, one with a small child with her. Sephiroth recognized the holding cell they were in as one of the ones on this same floor, just down the corridor from where he was standing. The woman sat on the stripped bed and played a hand clapping game with the child, a little girl. They went still and the woman looked up at the door, the little girl looked frightened. She might have cried but there was no sound.

A pair of orderlies entered. Sephiroth could see Hojo standing in the hallway just beyond the doorway. Sephiroth couldn't help but tense as the orderlies approached the two prisoners, subjects, even though the events had happened years ago and there was nothing he could do now for either of them. The woman was separated roughly from the little girl, who hid under the bed. Sephiroth could sympathize with her, her small sanctuary all too flimsy and easily ripped away. The orderlies did not flip up the bed to retrieve the girl, but left with the mother in tow. The recording ended.

That was not what Sephiroth had been expecting. He opened one of the project's reports and scanned thought the summary. Project C was a study of the Cetra. The subject, who was nameless in the report, was one of the last humans to exhibit the full range of the Cetra's abilities. There was also mention of a half-blood girl, but only to explain why she was unsuitable for Hojo's purposes even though as a child she would be more malleable then the grown woman. There was a lengthy sidebar lamenting how unfortunate the woman hadn't been able to have a full-blooded child.

Sephiroth had some half-formed plan of getting the woman, or at least the girl, out if either of them were still in any condition. Sephiroth's mind skirted around the realization that doing so would be taken by the company as a form of anti-ShinRa terrorism, but he had just helped to keep a couple dozen children from Hojo's clutches. _Surely this wasn't any worse_, he tried to rationalize to the loyalty conditioned into his subconscious.

He opened the most recent video file to get an idea of their current condition. The child was a little older. She must have been just a baby when her and her mother were captured as she couldn't have been any older than five or six. The woman was brushing the girl's long hair. It was difficult to discern its actual color on the grainy black and white security film, but it fell in thick waves to the small of the girl's back. No one came in, the door didn't open, but the two were just gone in a blink after a couple of minutes of play.

Sephiroth blinked in surprise. He replayed the clip. Looking closely he could see the repetitive motions of the brush, up and down, up and down, the exact same motions over and over again. Someone had put the security camera on a loop to cover up the two's escape. Sephiroth knew that Cloud was behind it. The timing was right, Cloud would have just recently arrived at ShinRa from the future. The evidence was weak, but he had a bone deep certainty that Cloud smuggled the Cetra woman and her daughter out of the ShinRa building.

His PHS's alarm beeped at him, startling Sephiroth out of his contemplation of the computer screen. He checked it and found that Hojo, or at least his PHS, had wandered into Sephiroth's scan range and set off the alarm. Sephiroth quickly silenced his PHS, erased all record of his digging around on Hojo's computer, and closed down the computer. He slipped out the door and down the access stairs before Hojo got off the elevator. As Sephiroth exited the stairwell on the SOLDIER floor he paused at the sound of voices.

"Swords, guns, bikes, or cars; it's all about sex," a raucous voice declared. The nearby rec area had a few Second Class SOLDIERs lounging around on battered sofas. It was from here that the loud announcement had come. "If a man is going to be spending that much time stroking something that ain't himself then it's sure as shit is _not_ going to be another guy."

The other SOLDIERs laughed.

"What about chocobos?" one of the guys from the edge of the group called out.

"Oh, well that's _birds_," he said. "Everyone knows it takes a real man to handle a bull chocobo."

The man leaned forward into the audience, gearing up to deliver what Sephiroth suspected was prepared material. Sephiroth's PHS went off again, an incoming call this time. He hurried away instead of lingering and listening in morbid fascination to the Second's dissertation. When he saw who was calling and winced, but some calls you just couldn't avoid.

"General Heidegger," Sephiroth greeted the man as he answered the phone.

"I don't have time for this shit," the other man growled into the phone, clearly aggravated over something. "Find that blond bastard and tell him to do his job."

Sephiroth was momentarily taken aback by the odd demand. What blond did the general think that Sephiroth could find for him? "Cloud?"

"Cloud? Yes, Cloud!" Heidegger shouted, Sephiroth could hear crashing in the background and hoped that whatever the man had hit had been inanimate. But with Heidegger it wasn't likely, he's been known say that it wasn't as satisfying if someone wasn't in pain. "You find him, tell him to do the damn mission, and you stick with him until it gets done. And maybe we can see about getting you bumped up to First Class."

The phone went dead before Sephiroth could ask why Heidegger didn't just assign the mission to someone else, but he knew why Heidegger didn't reassign the mission. Because he told Cloud to do it and Cloud turned him down, so now he was going to make Cloud do it just because he could.

Sephiroth wished Heidegger had called someone else though. While Cloud's mentoring was informal and not registered with ShinRa, it wasn't exactly a closely kept secret. However, if Heidegger, one of the most _oblivious_ people in the combat divisions, had noticed, then it wouldn't be long before Hojo learned of it as well.


	9. Chapter 9

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 9

… … …

Sephiroth tried calling Cloud, no reply. After being nagged by Heidegger, Sephiroth probably would've turned off his phone too. Instead he activated his PHS's tracker and followed it to Cloud. What he found made the Second's statement about bikes and sex suddenly makes a lot more sense. Fenrir had been stripped down to the bare structure, the engine completely dismantled and scattered about, along the better part of at least three Mako batteries. In the midst of the chaos Cloud was running his strong hands along the front suspension and muttering softly under his breath completely heedless of the fact that he was nearly naked. Stripped down to his black pants, his skin was streaked with grease, bright Mako and red welts from the Mako burns.

"Hand me the Materia slot," Cloud said, with a start Sephiroth tore his eyes away from his mentor and looked at the other man working with him. The young man was about Sephiroth's age with dark blond hair in a short military cut. He was dressed more sensibly to be working with raw Mako in heavy rubber gloves, apron, and boots over sturdy clothes. He also had a welder's mask on but that was pushed up to make room for the cigarette dangling from his lower lip. The young man handed Cloud needle-nosed pliers with shining metal bracket wedged at the end.

It was the young man who spotted Sephiroth first, Cloud being completely focus on affixing the Materia slot to part of the bike's structure. "Wha'd'ya want?"

It took Sephiroth a moment to decipher what he was asking. "I wish to speak to Cloud a moment."

He rolled his head from side to side loudly cracking the vertebrae. He didn't even bother to look at Cloud. "He's busy."

Sephiroth bit back an unpleasant snarl. Who did this little… little shit think he was? "It's important," Sephiroth said stiffly.

The cocky young man smirked. "I'm sure you think it is."

"Cid," Cloud said the warning clear in his voice.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Knock it off."

"No teasing the SOLDIERs, got it." The blond sighed. "You never let me have any fun."

"Sephiroth," Cloud greeted him with a nod, setting the pliers down on the cement floor. "This is Airman Cid Highwind. Cid, Sephiroth."

The name was familiar, but Sephiroth couldn't remember where he had heard it before. Cid nodded at him and flicked his cigarette into an open beer can before lighting another.

"Heidegger called me, looking for you," Sephiroth said. Cid snickered. "He says he has a mission that he wants you to do."

"I'm a little busy," Cloud said. He picked up a piece of the engine and fit it into place on the bike's frame, paying special attention to the newly attached Materia slot.

"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked.

"Improved Mako engine," Cid said with a wide grin.

Sephiroth was the first to admit that his knowledge of Mako started and ended at the showers that were part of the SOLDIER treatments. While he was dimly aware that Mako was an energy source used to power a multitude of things it was different to see it actually at work. He was curious despite having no previous interest in the subject. A half naked Cloud probably helped as well. "Why?"

"Mako engines are crap," Cloud said shortly. "No pick-up, no speed, slow response time."

"But see," Cid interjected. "We figure it ain't the Mako that's the problem. It's the configuration of the Materia matrix that runs the engine. Just need to be streamlined and… boosted a bit."

Sephiroth blinked at them. "There's Materia in the engine?"

"Shit, man." Cid hawked and spat. "There's Materia in _everything_. Haven't you ever taken your PHS apart to see how it works?"

"No."

"Seriously? Look," Cid fished out a civilian model, a clunky piece roughly half the size and weight of a brick, and popped the cover off easily with the flick of his thumb. Nestled in among the wires were three tiny Materia beads the size of seeds, and familiar green glowing drop of Mako. "Lightning to run the electrical system, Comm to hook up with the PHS network, and Sense."

"Sense?" He'd used the Sense skill in battle, but couldn't think of why it would be in the PHS.

"Shit, yeah. How else do you think the phone'll recognize you? Pick up yer voice? Take pictures?"

Sephiroth shrugged. "I hadn't really considered it."

"Gaia's green fields," was the politest in the string of epitaphs that spewed from Cid's mouth. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Cid, hand me the Mako tubing," Cloud ordered. He had gone back to doing mysterious things to the bike's engine while Cid and Sephiroth had been talking. Cid picked up a length of thin rubber tubing and placed it in Cloud's outstretched hand. Without taking his eyes from what Cloud was doing he snapped his PHS back together and pocketed it with his other hand.

"How does the Materia work without someone to activate it?" Sephiroth asked.

"The Mako," Cloud grunted shortly as he picked up a socket wrench and screwed some bolts into place.

Cid nodded and flicked his cigarette ash into the beer can. Sephiroth could hear liquid sloshing around in the small metal container. "Mako'll set off a bead as if someone cast the spell. And better, you don't have to constantly think about it. Just push a button and go."

"They use a lot of fused and refined Materia; smaller beads with only one spell to activate," Cloud said. He measured out more lengths of tubing and cut them with a battered utility knife stamped with SAF.

Sephiroth frowned as he thought about it, remembering the Mako springs in the Mythril Mine dotted with the shining specs that were naturally forming Materia. "But Materia is formed from Mako, what keeps it from exploding in the spring?"

"Affinity," Cloud said absently as he focus an attaching the tubing to various portions of the engine.

Cid nodded and flicked ash off of the end of his cigarette. "It's like an electrical charge. As long as there's an imbalance you get a reaction. After a while it evens out and you get nothing. Tha's why you gotta swap out the batteries every so often."

"I suppose this would be as good a place as any to stop and see what Heidegger wants," Cloud said, sitting back on his heels he picked up a filthy rag to wipe his hands off with.

"Aw, come on," Cid whined. "We almost got the grid working right last time."

"Yeah, and if it blows again I want the time to clean up the mess," Cloud said.

"Fine, fine," Cid held up one hand. "You go deal with your General Assface. I'll just tidy up here, overworked slave that I am."

"Well, I wasn't going to make you pick up the mess by yourself," Cloud said as he stood up, rolling easily to his feet amid the scattered debris. "But if you're offering."

"Yeah, get going," Cid waived him away. "Besides if your PHS buzzes anymore it'll vibrate a hole through the concrete. Don't worry about your bike. I wouldn't take off with your baby."

"Of course you wouldn't. He doesn't fly."

Sephiroth started a bit at the masculine pronoun, given the declaration that he had heard less than an hour earlier. He glanced at Cid but the airman didn't seem to find the pronoun odd at all. He just grinned widely at Cloud. "Give me five minutes with hunk of Float and a soldering iron and see if it don't."

Cloud shook his head with a small smile and gathered his things. As he walked back towards the hotel he flipped open his PHS he scrolled through the messages. Sephiroth fell into step behind him. "You going to follow me all the way to Icicle Inn?"

"Sorry?"

Cloud waved his PHS at Sephiroth. "The mission, you going to follow me the entire way there?"

"Heidegger seems to think you need a babysitter," Sephiroth said.

"All right, just give me minute to get cleaned up, and then we can see if ShinRa has anything decent in the motor pool we can requisition."

"Of course." Cloud showered and changed quickly, he still had grey shadows smeared across his skin in places where he didn't scrub thoroughly enough. Then they were out the door, pausing just long enough for Cloud to stuff a pack of Ether vials into his pocket. In all it took less than hour for Cloud to get cleaned up and for them to find out that Heidegger had already assigned a chopper and pilot just waiting on them to lift off. Once they were safely in the air, Sephiroth cleared his throat and tapped the headset's mike, conveniently provided for in-flight communication. "What is the mission objective?"

"Didn't Heidegger tell you?" Cloud asked looking surprised.

"No."

"And you didn't ask?" Cloud observed. "I thought I was teaching you better than that."

"It seemed imprudent at the time," Sephiroth said dryly.

"Hm," Cloud pulled out his PHS to review the mission specs. "The communication relays keep getting knocked offline. Several repair crew have been sent out, the last tech's report claims that the damage had to have been done by human action. There is some concern regarding anti-ShinRa sentiment."

"Terrorists?" Sephiroth scoffed. "It's the middle of nowhere."

Cloud gave him a hard look that had Sephiroth straightening, reflexively, into a sharp parade rest, or as close as he could get to it while strapped in to the helicopter's bucket seat.

"Sorry."

"What is your evaluation of the situation," Cloud asked. Sephiroth tried not to groan, or roll his eyes though he was sorely tempted to do both. When Cloud got into his 'mentor' mode he could have Sephiroth analyzing every possible angle on a given situation for _hours_.

"My first inclination is an animal that frequents the area is causing the damage," Sephiroth said, after a moment's consideration. "Human action could be due to kids, this is a resort area known for a transient population so you may have people feeling free to cut loose and cause trouble in ways that they wouldn't at home. And yes, anti-ShinRa groups are a possibility. Except that it's CommWorks that maintains the relays and they are not widely known as a ShinRa company, so terrorists are less likely."

"What would you advise for a plan of action?" Cloud asked, settling back into the seat.

"Survey the area, set up a defensible position around the relay until repairs are complete, then retreat to a secondary position to observe," Sephiroth answered promptly.

"Good, I'll leave you in charge of that, then." Cloud said it so matter-of-factly that it took a moment for Sephiroth to process what he said. Sephiroth's snapped his head over to stare at Cloud wide eyed in shock.

_What?_ "What?" Sephiroth asked surprised. After how badly he botched the Mythril Mine mission he was fairly sure that he was never going to see command again. Besides, as the ranking officer _Cloud_ was in charge of the mission. "Are you sure?"

"I'll be working on the repairs," Cloud said, he watched out the window at the endless blue of sea and sky. "If the damage is as extensive as the reports have indicated I'll have my hands full, and I want you to focus on the mission's defense aspect. Think of it as another exercise in logistics."

"Oh," Sephiroth said weakly. He tried to adopt Cloud's nonchalant manner but was too keyed up by the unexpected responsibility. "How long is the mission expected to last?" When he tagged along without grabbing anything but Ashura he was expecting a basic monster hunt, Cloud hadn't grabbed anything either outside of his monster of a weapon and… a pack of ethers. That more than anything should have cued Sephiroth in on the fact that Cloud was expecting either real trouble or a long haul, and Sephiroth doubted that his mentor would deliberately let him tag along if there was real trouble brewing. And he had no change of clothes. "What resources do we have?"

"We have two full winter kits, and whatever Icicle Inn happens to have available, which would probably be everything." _All at exorbitant prices no doubt,_ Sephiroth thought, silently agreeing with Cloud's assessment.

"What Materia do we have?" Sephiroth asked barely before Cloud had finished answering the first question. He was just carrying his standard, Restore-All combo, Vital Slash, and Fira-Elemental. Sephiroth had never actually seen Cloud carry combat Materia, but he recalled Yuffie referring to Cloud's Materia collection and she had implied that it was extensive. The First Sword certainly held enough slots that if Cloud ever chose to equip them-

"Fire-All, Ice-All, Lightning-All, Earth-All, Restore, Heal, Life, Cover, Counter Attack, Pre-Emptive, Steal, and Bahamut." Sephiroth thought for a moment that the cabin had been breached; the air had been completely sucked out of his lungs at the shock as Cloud rattled off his list.

"Just Fire?" Sephiroth asked weakly.

"Fully mastered, naturally formed." Which meant that he had the full range of all three spell levels.

Then Sephiroth's brain caught up to the last item on the impossibly long list. "Bahamut? You have a _summons_?"

Summons were… powerful and rare. They were worshiped as gods in ancient times for a reason. In some places they still were for that matter. Cloud just looked at him. Right, logistics exercise.

"We probably don't need to double up on the Restore," Sephiroth said. "I can remove mine and take the Pre-Emptive- i- if that's okay with you?" Since he was the one walking the perimeter it would make more sense for him to have that edge on the awareness.

Cloud nodded. "I can take your Restore, so you don't lose any growth."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said weakly, as he handed his Materia over and accepted the other, still feeling a little pole-axed over the Bahamut revelation. The All next to the Pre-Emptive would be practically useless, but there wasn't much he could do about that. "What do we know about the location of the relay?"

"It's in an open plain south of Icicle Inn." That was a complication. An open area meant that he'd have to cover all sides. It would be nearly impossible to funnel any attackers into a more strategic location.

Previously, Sephiroth hadn't thought twice about rushing into a mission and killing everything in sight, but after having Cloud's more cautious, information first approach drilled into him, he was finding that he didn't like this situation at all. "It will be difficult to determine what kind of defense perimeter we will need until we get there to look at the terrain. Can you guess how long it will take for you to effect the repairs?"

"Not until I see the extent of the damage. I also have to set up a secondary subroutine in the matrix. That alone can take upwards of an hour," Cloud said.

"What is our fallback position?"

"We have two options; one, we can bivouac in the foothills, we have the minimal supplies necessary, or two, we can hole up in the ShinRa lodge at Icicle Inn."

Sephiroth considered the possibilities. Camping in the cold northern tundra would be their best option only if they needed to remain unnoticed. "Minimal supplies? Would we have to go into Icicle Inn?"

Cloud nodded. "The protein packs aren't enough to sustain SOLDIER constitution in the cold for more than a few days."

"Aren't we supposed to supplement it by living off the land?"

"Not much out there to live off of," Cloud said. "We'd have to spend most of our time hunting if we tried."

"And we won't have this problem if we stay at the lodge?"

Cloud shook his head. "The buildings at Icicle Inn hold heat better and our bodies wouldn't need to burn so much to compensate."

"So, whether we stay there or not we will have to go in to Icicle Inn?" Cloud nodded. Sephiroth sighed. "We might as well stay there, then, if there's no advantage to camping out. Do you have any other information that would be necessary for the successful completion of the mission?"

"No, sir," Cloud said without a hint of sarcasm.

Sephiroth's mind was buzzing with half formed plans and possible complications. Cloud spent the time staring out the window. Eventually the blue waves beneath them turned to icy tundra. The chopper didn't even fully land, just dumped the two of them and their packs before retreating southwards. The open valley was walled in along the north, west, and south with high white expanses that could have been snowy mountains or glaciers for all Sephiroth could tell.

Sephiroth frowned at the featureless expanse. "How am I supposed to create a defensible perimeter with this?"

Cloud pulled out his PHS, flipped it open, and turned in a slow circle before setting off in a north-north-east direction. "You don't, really. Just keep your eyes open for movement. If we need to, there's a thing with ice blocks I can show you."

"Ice blocks," Sephiroth said flatly.

"Yep," Cloud paused and checked the PHS. "It should be around here, the pilot did a good job dropping us close to the marker."

Sephiroth looked around. "I don't see anything."

"Of course you wouldn't," Cloud said. "You didn't think they make the relays easy to find did you?"

He was actually expecting something like the thin metal towers that were scattered the length and breadth of Midgar, but he didn't see anything that matched that description sticking out from the featureless plain. The only things that stood out were him and Cloud in their dark SOLDIER uniforms as they trudge across the white field.

"Here we are," Cloud knelt down and swept aside snow off of a small dome made of some hard white plastic, nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the tundra. Inside it was a tangle of wires, a large chunk of pale amethyst colored Materia and industrial-grade green Lighting. Cloud unrolled a long leather pad that had numerous tools nestled each in precisely sized pocket. Also included were vials with small seed beads of purple and green similar to what he had seen in Cid's PHS earlier. Cloud started unraveling some of the wires, twisting others together, and generally creating a bit of a mess as he pulled the inner workings of the dome out onto the snow.

Sephiroth paced around him, continuously moving to keep warm. He was always careful to examine every direction in irregular intervals to avoid setting a predictable pattern. The sunlight reflected off the snow like sheets of light laid out on the flat plains surrounding them. Nothing was moving. Nothing was out there. Eventually his eyes were drawn back to Cloud.

"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud glanced up at him. "You're not supposed to be watching me."

"Sorry," Sephiroth turned outwards to scan the expanse of nothingness around them.

"The Sense Materia I'm adding should get the stats and take a picture of anything that comes into contact with the relay and dump the info into the system, which I can then download with my PHS."

"If you can download it, doesn't that mean that anyone else can as well?"

"Theoretically," Cloud said. "You'd have to know where to look for it first, and that will tell us just as much about our troublemakers as a stats-shot will."

"And they needed to send two SOLDIERs out for this?" Sephiroth asked. Any of the CommWorks techs could probably have done the same.

Cloud's hands on the wires went still. "Two SOLDIERs… impossible it's too soon."

The words were soft, possibly not meant to be overheard, but Sephiroth was more enhanced then a standard SOLDIER. "Cloud?"

Cloud quickly snipped off some excess wires, stuffed some back and pulled others out. He worked swiftly detangling the wires, cutting one here twisting together a pair there. "Keep your eyes up, we are not safe here."

The harsh order had Sephiroth snapping to attention. He continued his small short circuits, but despite the sudden tension there was no change in the featureless plain. The back of his neck crawled with the feeling that they were being watched, although he was reasonably certain that it was just his imagination over reacting to Cloud's sudden anxiety. "Is there anything in particular I'm watching for, sir?"

"Enhanced human."

"SOLDIERs?" Sephiroth asked, startled.

"Anti-ShinRa," Cloud said, his words short and even more clipped than usual.

"Terrorists have SOLDIERs?" Sephiroth asked. _Did ShinRa know about this?_

"Not… not real SOLDIERs, but the principles are the same," Cloud said.

"And they took out two SOLDIERS?"

"Captured."

Sephiroth blanched. That was even worse. "What happened?"

Cloud hesitated; he was obviously reluctant to talk about it. Sephiroth could only imagine why, ShinRa preferred to bury their embarrassments. And usually any witnesses along with them. "Two SOLDIERs on patrol in the Icicle Area were ambushed and captured, by an anti-ShinRa faction. It took another SOLDIER and a Turk to take out the faction."

"And the captured SOLDIERs?"

"They had been tortured, experimented on, and… changed. They were killed by the Turk."

Sephiroth nodded. "That was probably for the best. Who knows what secrets they may have already betrayed."

Cloud shot him a dark look, but didn't say anything. He just focused on the task, carefully wiring in the additional Materia Beads. As soon as Sephiroth realized that he was watching Cloud again he spun around to look out at the surrounding terrain. Even with the knowledge of potential enemies bearing down on them, it was surprisingly difficult to keep his attention focused on their empty surroundings. Even when he could force his eyes to remain on the snow his mind started to wander.

Sephiroth was puzzled by his sudden cold turn. Wouldn't it be better? He knew if something like that happened to him he would prefer dying at the hands of a friend, like Cloud or, perhaps, Angeal. Someone who knew him, who cared. At the very least, let it be another SOLDIER or a Turk, and not some terrorist, practically a _civilian_, who just happened to get lucky.

Sephiroth heard the sharp click as Cloud closed the dome back up, but he didn't turn to look. "Let's get going."

The short trip up the valley to Icicle Inn was silent and watchful. Once they entered the resort town Cloud waved Sephiroth towards the main building. "Get the ShinRa lodge key from the hotel clerk. I'm going to report in."

Sephiroth considered objecting to splitting up, since Cloud was so worried about ambush, but he decided that the risks within Icicle Inn itself were probably minimal. He doubted anyone would be stupid enough to try the same trick twice if was going to bring both SOLDIER and the Turks down on their heads.

The hotel clerk's face light up as Sephiroth walked through the door. "I thought I heard someone say that the lines were back up. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"The key to the ShinRa lodge," Sephiroth said, unconsciously mimicking Cloud's short way of speaking.

"Ah, of course," he reached under the counter and after a brief moment of unseen locks clicking and doors sliding produced a simple key with the ShinRa logo embossed on the brass tag. "Would you like the turn-down service for your stay?"

"No," Sephiroth picked up the key. He turned go back outside but paused as a thought occurred to him. "Will the kitchenette be stocked?"

"Not currently, sir," the man replied with a small shake of his head. "We keep the lodges empty when not in use. If you'd like, we can warm up the building and stock the cupboards. You can dine in our downstairs lounge area while you wait."

"That would be acceptable," Sephiroth nodded.

"Very good, sir. Do you want anything in particular for your rooms?"

"No, just the standard." He said, hoping that there was a standard, because he had no idea where to start with stocking a kitchen.

"Very good, sir. Enjoy your stay." Without another word Sephiroth crossed the lobby, and braced himself to walk back out into the biting cold air.

"No. Look, Yuffie, forget ShinRa a moment. Check for any active ties to avalanche," Cloud was saying into his PHS, he glanced over his shoulder at Sephiroth. "Just do it." He ordered and snapped the phone shut. He tucked it away and turned to Sephiroth with an expectant look.

"I have the key," Sephiroth said, promptly handing over said key to Cloud. "The clerk said they can heat up the building and stock the kitchen. There's a lounge were we can wait."

"If I recall they serve food there right?" Cloud said as he entered the building.

"Yes, sir."

"Good, it's been a long time since breakfast."

They were ushered into a small table equidistant from any other occupied table. Sephiroth felt his mind spinning with the new information and odd connections. Why would Cloud call _Yuffie?_ Wasn't she still investigating crooked chocobo races at the Golden Saucer? And what was 'avalanche'? What connections could any of it possibly have to their mission? He glanced up at Cloud who was staring down at the menu, mind obviously elsewhere. It was possible it was nothing; Yuffie could have contacted Cloud for his opinion on her mission. Given Cloud's tone with the girl, however, Sephiroth doubted that such was the case. If only he could get the pieces to _fit_. "How did the report to Heidegger go?"

Cloud glanced up, a flicker of blue. "He wants us here until the situation is resolved."

"How long do you expect that to take, sir?"

"The relay would go down again usually three days to a week after the techs left the area," Cloud said. "I expect it's going to take at least that long if they are unaware of our presence here."

"You think that they might be?"

"It's possible," Cloud said. "Doubtful, but possible. They'd have to come into Icicle Inn semi-regularly for supplies. They won't be able to miss our presence."

"So, what is the plan?"

"You tell me."

Sephiroth considered it. "Wait for them to move. Watch for suspicious activity."

Cloud nodded, their conversation fell silent as a waitress in black skirt far too short for the polar region stopped by to take their order. They were silent as they ate. The meal was warm and filling with red meats in rich sauces and starchy tubers. They didn't linger for dessert but retired to the ShinRa lodge soon after. The building was cozy with a built fire in a central fireplace, heavy curtains were drawn across the windows and numerous lamps had been turned down to a comfortable level that was easy on SOLDIER eyes after a day of dealing with bright glare from the snow and ice. Sephiroth hadn't even realized that it was an issue until the muscles around his eyes relaxed, and he could feel the tension draining from his face. Cloud let out a soft sigh of relief as well.

He headed directly for the upstairs loft. Uncertain of what else to do Sephiroth followed. The loft area was warmed but the rising heat from the fire downstairs. There were three full sized beds lined up against the one wall. Two of them had with a bedside lamp glowing with soft golden light, and warmed sheets turned down, their packs resting at the foot, apparently untouched. Sephiroth identified his, laid his weapon down within easy reach and flopped down on the bed. Cloud stood next to the far window with one arm leaning against the wall he gazed out at the snow and ice, still lit bright as day even though Sephiroth knew that it had to be well past 2200 hours.

Sephiroth's eyes wandered to where Cloud had rested his Fusion Sword against the wall near the head of his bed. The metal gleamed with a shine of thin oil and all of the pieced fit together perfectly to form a single broad blade. He had seen Cloud dismantle and re-assemble the swords enough times that he could name each of the blades. Cloud handled his weapon with care and respect. Cloud handled everything with the same care and respect, from what Sephiroth had seen. He wondered if Cloud would handle a lover the same way.

Laying on the bed watching Cloud, Sephiroth let his mind wandering to places other than missions and anti-ShinRa terrorists. He found his eye drawn to admire Cloud's toned muscles and wonder if the skin was as smooth as it looked. He sat up and nervously twisted the dark knit top in his hands. "Cloud?"

"Hm?" Cloud didn't even turn to look at him, his gaze distant as it had been ever since they came in from the tundra.

"Are you gay?" The question was a hazard, a guess based on an odd comment about a _bike _and some idiot's…. Cloud went absolutely still a moment before turning around. He leaned against the wall, bracing himself.

"If it makes you uncomfortable I can sleep downstairs," Cloud said, not looking Sephiroth in the eye.

… … …

AN:One of my favorite things about fantasy novels is the appendix in the back where the author takes the time to explain in more detail the background and world building that went into the story. When working up the concepts for _A SOLDIER'S Weapon_I did a lot of background work extrapolating how Materia could be used, not just in combat as was demonstrated in the game, but in everyday life for the people in the world of Final Fantasy VII.

I thought I can share some of this with you all in case there is anyone here who, like me, enjoys reading this kind of world building and meta. Rest assured, this is not required reading to understand the concepts needed for the story. Those are explained in fic for all the necessary bits. And there will be not spoilers for the plot. Some of the concepts mentioned in the essay never came up in the story, but still forms and underlying unity for how things work whether the characters, or you, know the reason for them.

If you do find these things interesting please enjoy my LiveJournal entry: oniko-inuki. livejournal 17309. html (enter without spaces or go to my profile to follow the link.)


	10. Chapter 10

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 10

… … …

Sephiroth felt his heart nearly stop at Cloud's evasive answer, the stupid, idiot guess was _right_. Cloud pushed off from the wall and reached for his bag.

"No!" Sephiroth said, nearly panicking that Cloud had misinterpreted his shock. "No, stay. I want you… I want you to stay."

Cloud dropped his hand. Now he was watching Sephiroth warily. He didn't ask. He didn't say anything. He just watched and waited.

"I want you to fuck me," Sephiroth said, looking Cloud straight in the eye. There, he'd said it. He'd said the thing that he had been dancing around since he had first seen the blond SOLDIER.

"No." The denial was flat and final. Cloud's blue eyes were cold and hard.

"But," Sephiroth started to protest even as the clenching pain in his chest made him want to glance down and make sure that no one had stabbed him when he wasn't looking.

"No," Cloud repeated again, more forcefully. "You don't know what you're asking."

"Yes, I do," Sephiroth whispered. They stared at each other across the room, across the void. Cloud shook his head.

"Yes, I do!" The exclamation drove Sephiroth to his feet, pacing forward a few steps. "I know I can't ask anyone else. Not anyone in ShinRa. I'm nothing but a toy to them. A pet…a weapon."

"You are _not_ a weapon," Cloud said harshly.

"Yes, I am," Sephiroth said as he stepped forward again and looked into Cloud's blue eyes. Cloud's façade was starting to crack. "We both know how ShinRa treats its weapons. But you…" Sephiroth let his eyes drift to Ashura that Cloud had taught him to care for. " '_A well cared for weapon will serve you for years to come.'_ Isn't that what you said? I'd rather be a weapon in your hands then theirs."

"You are not a weapon," Cloud repeated softly, one hand reaching out.

Sephiroth closed the distance. He leaned down until his lips barely brushed against Cloud's. "That's why I want it to be you."

Cloud reached up, his hands cradling Sephiroth's head in a strong grip that could probably crush his skull if Cloud let it. Cloud leaned into him, his eyes closed and his voice full of anguish. "You don't know what you are asking!"

Sephiroth opened his mouth to protest again, but Cloud was kissing him. A hard press of mouth to mouth, his tongue sliding against Sephiroth's sent a frission of need straight to the tip of his cock. Sephiroth pressed back against him just as desperately, his hands tugging at the other man's clothing. Zippers and buckles come undone in a disorderly fashion of whatever he happened to find under his fingers.

Cloud pushed him back onto the bed, and he was dimly aware of his own clothes being shed. Mostly he focused on the feel of hands and mouth on skin. Sephiroth tugged down the zipper to Cloud's black uniform top, he ran his hands across Cloud's broad chest, marveling in the feel of muscle and skin under his hands. Cloud's skin was marred by old scars, and Sephiroth traced them lightly. There was one, about the length of Sephiroth's palm, purplish in color and slightly off center that he recognized at the twin to the mark he saw on Cloud's back after the Mythril Mine operation.

"What happened?" Sephiroth asked, his fingers lightly brushing against the dark scar. Cloud grabbed Sephiroth's hand in a tight grip. He could feel his bones grinding against one another. He refused to make a sound of pain, though his breath hitched in his throat. "Cloud?"

Cloud's expression had gone blank, lost in memories again. After a long moment it cleared, and Cloud released Sephiroth's hand. Sephiroth flexed his fingers, nothing broken. "Sorry. I'm sorry. The wound is still… fresh."

"It's okay, I understand." And he did. Some wounds damaged more than the body, and Sephiroth had inadvertently triggered something. He reached out to trace the side of Cloud's face. Cloud flinched a little at first, but then leaned into the touch. He turned his head to kiss the palm of Sephiroth's hand. "No harm done."

Not to Sephiroth. Not to Cloud. Whatever had happened was long past and over, they were both alive today. Cloud leaned down for a long, slow kiss, and settled them into a more languid pattern of long strokes and gentle kisses.

After an indeterminate length of time Cloud pulled back to study Sephiroth sprawled out on the bed before him. Both of them had been stripped of their dark uniforms. Even Sephiroth's long braid had come loose and spilled across the pillow in a silver fall. His face was once again an expressionless mask.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked, uncertain what he was asking, but needing the answer just the same.

His lips curled into a slight smile. "Just thinking," Cloud murmured. "You are very beautiful."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said, uncertainly.

"And I don't want to hurt you," Cloud said, as his hand slid along Sephiroth's thigh in a long gentle glide, that caused Sephiroth's cock to twitch and jump. Cloud smirked at him. His own member was long and hard. "Roll over."

Sephiroth did as he asked, suddenly apprehensive. Sephiroth may have been a virgin and he may have been inexperienced, but he had listened in on enough barracks talk to know what was coming next. And to know that it was never portrayed in a good light. Painful and humiliating, but it was _Cloud. _

"Shh, relax," Cloud said gently, one hand rubbing gentle circles into the small of Sephiroth's back while the other dug through one of the packs for something. "ShinRa doesn't exactly pack for this sort of thing, so we will have to make do."

Sephiroth glance back at Cloud to see him lay out a few item from the sword care kit, soft cloths and oil. He tried not to laugh at the irony of it. The cloth was soaked in warm water and trailed along his skin, along with gentle touches and open mouth kisses. It took a moment for Sephiroth to realize that Cloud was cleaning him. He flushed in embarrassment and started to pull away. As soon as he did, Cloud stood up and stepped away from the bed.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked. He shivered in the sudden cold. "Why did you stop?"

"You're obviously not ready for this," Cloud said, reaching down to grab his pants. "I'll just sleep downstairs."

"No, I'm," Sephiroth reached out grab Cloud's wrist. He wanted this. As uncomfortable as the thought made him he wanted this so badly, he was hard and throbbing. Not just his penis but his whole body was humming with the sensation from the light touches and deep kisses. "I'm ready, I want this. It's just… I don't know what I'm doing." And that admission _hurt_, he had never been in a situation where he didn't know exactly what he was doing. But ever since Cloud had come into his life it has been one thing after another, and he could never tell with Cloud what the correct response was supposed to be…

"Sephiroth, there isn't a correct response," Cloud said seriously. And, oh goddess he did not just say that out loud. But by Cloud's solemn expression he _had _and what was Cloud going to think of him now? Cloud reached up and brushed the long bangs out of Sephiroth's face. "There's just what you feel. It isn't right and it isn't wrong. I am not going to punish you for it."

Sephiroth clung to that tenuous promise. "You won't leave?"

"No," Cloud sighed, leaning over to give him a gentle kiss. "I won't leave."

Sephiroth tugged him back on the bed, never letting go of Cloud. If his hand wasn't on his wrist, he was stroking Cloud's hip or kissing pale skin. He was half-afraid that if he didn't Cloud would try to leave again.

They lay entwined on the bed, kissing and touching. This time when Cloud gently urged him to his hands and knees he didn't tense up but remained relaxed as Cloud stroked and petted, down his spine and up his thighs. The gentle massage and press of fingers inside of him did not cause him to flinch. Instead he moaned as the stimulation sent electric shivers across his skin.

He groaned again, louder at the wet press against his opening. Even as his brain processed the shock that Cloud had pressed his tongue to Sephiroth's sensitive opening the wet slide and thrust felt so good all he could do was moan and twist the sheets in his fists.

"Hmm," Cloud paused long enough to purr darkly. "You do beg so nicely." It was then that Sephiroth realized that formed words had actually been falling from his lips: 'please,' and 'more' and 'yes.'

There was the clink of glass and the familiar smell of the oil from his sword care kit filled the air. It didn't actually smell of metal but the association was so strong that Sephiroth could almost taste the sharp tang on the air anyways. Fingers, now slick, probed deeper. Sephiroth groaned and pushed back.

"Impatient."

"Please, Cloud. I need…" Sephiroth trailed off because he wasn't sure what he needed, just that he _needed_.

"What do you need?" Cloud asked softly. He repeated the question gently but all Sephiroth could do was moan _please_. Cloud leaned over him and kissed his shoulder gently. "Shh, it's alright."

When he did that their bodies were pressed together, and Sephiroth could feel Cloud's length, slick with oil, pressing against him, and he knew without any question or doubt _that_ was what he wanted. When he felt Cloud pull away he whimpered, but before further protest could be aired he could feel the blunt tip of Cloud's cock pressing against him. Strong hands against Sephiroth's hips held him steady as Cloud eased forward with gentle, shallow thrusts. It was good, each thrust sent tingles down his spine. But it wasn't enough.

"More, please," Sephiroth begged. Cloud paused, cock buried deep inside of Sephiroth, he stopped and Sephiroth wanted to scream in frustration.

"I could hurt you," Cloud cautioned, gently tucking a strand of long hair behind Sephiroth's ear.

"I am as much a SOLDIER as you are," Sephiroth said. "Please, Cloud."

"Tell me if you need me to stop," Cloud said, one hand gently pressing between Sephiroth's shoulder blades to push him down.

"I won't need you to," Sephiroth promised. His only warning was the tightening grip of Cloud's other hand on Sephiroth's hip and Cloud was thrusting into him with his enhanced strength, pounding harder and deeper than he had before. If it was good before, this was so much _better_. His cock was throbbing in time with Cloud's thrusts, and he knew he was going to come on the sheets.

Cloud's hand snaked around to grab his penis, hard, and his other grabbed at Sephiroth's hair pulling his head back roughly. "Don't you dare," Cloud growled in his ear. "Don't you dare come until I say you can."

"Please, Cloud," Sephiroth begged the words falling from his lips but they held no meaning, all he could do was feel. Push back into Cloud's thrusts and rock forward into his hand, harder and faster. Pushing him higher and higher.

Until he stopped. Sephiroth whined, pressing back against Cloud, but their bodies were already pressed together as tightly as they could. Cloud was no longer pulling back on his hair, but his arm was wrapped around him, a powerful vise that held Sephiroth in place. His hand was still pressed against Sephiroth's cock, gently rubbing and massaging. It took Sephiroth a long moment to realize that Cloud was speaking, his lips brushing lightly against Sephiroth's ear and his words were soft and low.

"-roth, I want you to come… now." As Cloud said it, the word coming out a harsh order, his hand gave a strong pull and Sephiroth felt everything dissolve around him as he came over Cloud's hand at his command.

Sephiroth gradually came back to himself in bits and pieces, the gradual awareness of still twitching muscles, a curl of cool air snaking across his calf, and Cloud cradling him, hands combing through long tangled hair. He also gradually became aware of Cloud's still half erect member pressing against his thigh. He twisted around and blinked up at Cloud.

"You didn't…?" he asked hesitantly, because he certainly _did_, and he was still quivering with it. And Cloud was giving him an absolutely wicked grin that he had _never_ seen.

"Don't worry," Cloud said, running his hand lightly down Sephiroth's thigh, causing the muscles to shiver and twitch. "We'll be getting to that, later."

… … …

Their time spent at the ShinRa lodge in Icicle Inn was like a paradise to Sephiroth with just him and Cloud, no ShinRa and no Hojo. They continued their lessons in the day, sparring or simple war games between the two of them. Sometimes Cloud would take him out to show him the resort's various attractions: skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing. But Sephiroth preferred the nights where it was just him and Cloud together in a cozy warm cottage shutting out the world.

It was easy to push aside the outside world and the mysteries of Cloud and WolfHaven. But Sephiroth was better trained then that and as much as he wanted to, he still found a quiet moment here and there to make a quiet call, check a few facts. The information that he got back only seemed to make matters more confusing.

He learned that the 'avalanche' Cloud ordered Yuffie to look into was actually 'AVALANCHE,' a small anti-ShinRa terrorist group with an environmentalist slant. Sephiroth couldn't tell why Cloud seemed to think that they warranted special attention. There were other groups who were just as crazy and even more dangerous with better funding and civilian support. By all accounts, even though AVALANCHE was a Midgar centered organization their principals were straight from Cosmo Canyon, most Midvolk just didn't understand their goals. It was all a moot point anyways; AVALANCHE couldn't have possibly been around long enough to be the same group that Cloud was worried about up here.

It was late one morning when Sephiroth awoke. He would probably still be asleep if not for the chill along one side that spoke of a recently vacated place on the bed. He turned over, trying to roll the warm blankets around himself without letting in any of the cold air. "Cloud?"

"Go back to sleep," Cloud said. Sephiroth would have but by the rustle of cloth it sounded like Cloud was getting dressed.

Sephiroth sat up and blinked blearily at Cloud. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Cloud said shortly. "Go back to sleep."

"You're getting up for nothing? Come back to bed."

Cloud sighed. "I would love to, but Yuffie called. She can get to be annoyingly persistent when she thinks she's being ignored."

And with that he was gone, down the stairs and out the door, before Sephiroth could properly rejoinder that Yuffie was _always_ annoying, and shrill. Sweet Shiva, the pitches she could reach. He debated getting up as well but he was still tired from a very late night, so late he actually saw the sun graze the horizon before starting back into its upwards motion. He buried himself back in the blankets, tugging at them to close that stubborn gaping hole that always seemed to let a draft down his back. Sephiroth was drifting in and out of sleep when he felt a presence beside the bed.

"What did she want?"

"Sleep," an unfamiliar voice said, greenish yellow light from the spell washing over him. Sephiroth tried to fight it, force himself from the bed to grab his weapons, but he was too tangled up in the heavy sheets and he fell heavily to the floor unable to catch himself.

The thing about the Sleep spell is that it isn't a true sleep, although his eyes were closed and his breathing a soft regular rhythm, Sephiroth was semi-aware of his surroundings. Sounds were muffled, and he could feel himself being bundled up and manhandled into the back of a vehicle. It was unpleasant and disorientating but they were gentle enough to not break the fragile spell that kept him unable to move.

He was taken out of the vehicle, through the cold and then into warmth once again. It's hadn't been long but difficult to judge how fast the vehicle had traveled or how much ground had been covered. Once inside he was laid out on a cold surface, probably a table if the drag he could feel on his hair spilling over the edge was any indication. Cold metal was clamped down on his arms and legs, also heavy bands across his shoulders and hips, pinning him down. He wanted to fight, break, do _something, _but he couldn't. He felt a sharp pinch in his arm, a needle, and the fog of the spell started to lift. He turned his head, blinking his eyes to clear the haze, to see a young man in a lab coat drawing blood from his arm. Sephiroth snarled at him but the man barely glanced up at him.

"Waking up now, are we?" he asked, removing the needle and daubing at a drop of blood with a square of white gauze.

" 'M not gonna tell you 'nything," Sephiroth slurred, the remnants of the Sleep spell still making it difficult to speak.

"Silly boy." Sephiroth wanted to snarl at him, the man couldn't be any older then _he_ was, and the man was copying Hojo's affectations to an irritating degree. "You don't need to say a word. All of Hojo's secrets are hardcoded into your DNA. All his successes," the man reached out and ran his thumb under Sephiroth's eye in a gesture that might have been intimate coming from anyone else. "All of his failures."

"Cloud will stop you," Sephiroth said stubbornly. The call Cloud had stepped out for couldn't take very long, and he would notice that Sephiroth was missing quickly. Sephiroth never went anywhere without informing Cloud. It was basic SOP when on a mission, and no matter how much it may have felt like a vacation, it _was_ a mission. Cloud would know that something was wrong right away. He had been half-expecting something like this and probably already had a contingency plan in place. He probably would have had a contingency plan in place anyways because this was _Cloud_.

"Don't you worry about your friend," The man said. Before he could ask why a mask was placed over his face, and the table Sephiroth was strapped on to tilted up until he was completely vertical and rolled backwards. Sephiroth only started to panic when a thick curved glass wall slid shut enclosing him in a narrow capsule, not unlike the tubes Hojo used for the SOLDIER's Mako showers. The restraints were made for SOLDIER strength and there was nothing he could do. Water quickly rushed in to fill the capsule. Fortunately it was only water, though Sephiroth knew how quickly that could change to Mako of various consistencies, burning and screaming and whispering secrets and horrors in his ears.

The air from the mask was filtered and stale but clean and it didn't contain any traces of detectable drugs. Sephiroth resigned himself to waiting. Whatever this guy was planning he wouldn't keep Sephiroth in the tanks forever. Eventually he'd want to see what Sephiroth could do, they always did, and that was when Sephiroth would have his chance.

The man left him in the capsule, puttering about the lab, running his blood sample through machines that only Hojo would probably be able to identify. Computer screens lit up with strings of information. Sephiroth hated being underwater like this because every sound, every vibration, had a strange echoing quality that magnified the smallest thing and muffled the loudest screams until it all blended together into dull buzzing through his head. Mako was almost preferable because the voices, disjointed and disturbing as they were, were a distraction from the scientists and lab assistants talking about him in those vast booming voices like proclamations from the gods themselves.

Time always seemed oddly warped whenever Sephiroth was trapped in a Mako tube. The scientist didn't seem to take breaks, but others did come and go. He couldn't tell if they were assistants or guards. They seemed to provide a similar function as Hojo's assistants but they wore a generic combat uniform and some of them were armed. Watching closely he was unable to find any discernable pattern in their actions. Sephiroth's heart nearly stopped when Cloud walked into the lab escorted by two of the assistants/infantrymen.

Sephiroth wasn't the only one surprised by Cloud's appearance.

"What are you doing?" The scientist leapt out of the chair, knocking over a glass beaker. It shattered on the hard concrete floor but no one paid it any mind. "My orders were to kill the other one, and you brought him here? While he is still armed! How incompetent do you have to be?"

The infantryman on the left shrugged. "He came up to us, Doctor. Knew the passcodes."

"What? You're AVALANCHE?" AVALANCHE. Cloud told Yuffie to look into ties to AVALANCHE, no doubt she'd came through. Must have been what her call was about. Sephiroth thought he might have to kiss the girl when next he saw her. It was just too bad that they were able to grab him while Cloud was getting her message. But with his mentor and lover here, Sephiroth felt safe knowing that Cloud would never let them do anything to him. The scientist glared at the trio standing in front of him. "Impossible! What is the Planet's grace?"

"The Lifestream is her blood and her blessing," Cloud said, his voice was filled with a soft reverence, sounding less like a god and more like a supplicant reciting a familiar prayer. It must have been the correct answer because the scientist fumed at him but didn't object any further as Cloud pushed his way into the room. The other two guards shrugged at each other and slinked off back to where ever their assigned posts were.

Cloud scanned the room with a practiced eye. After being drilled on the procedures by the blond man what probably only felt like a million times in the past several weeks, Sephiroth knew exactly what he was doing. He was identifying potential weapons, entrances, items usable for blockades, weak points in the room's defense even down to the air vents, and people were categorized as enemies, allies, and liabilities. Cloud came to stand before Sephiroth a flat emotionless mask over his face, even his eyes were distant blue pools as unfathomable as the ocean. "Interesting new toy you have here, Fuhito."

"Yes, Hojo's prized prototype, just think of what I can learn from him," the scientist, Fuhito, gloated. "The DNA strands are fascinating, but who would have thought Hojo to be this… this clumsy." Fuhito shook his head and traced his fingers over one of the screens. "The entire DNA sequencing of a kraken and for what?"

"Hn, thicker skin I believe," Cloud commented in an offhand manner, still watching Sephiroth with those blank eyes. Why hasn't he just killed the man yet and gotten Sephiroth out of there?

"The dermal layer," Fuhito scoffed. "That boy is two steps away from having tentacles. And wings, is that a roc?"

"He wasn't what I was referring to, though," Cloud said. "Your equipment here. It's more advance then I would expect to see from a hack operation like this, and your Ravens are further along than they should be."

Fuhito started. "What do you know of my Ravens? No one knows about my Ravens."

"Your subordinates talk," Cloud shrugged, turning around to face Fuhito. "The important question no one can answer is where are you getting your information?"

Fuhito shifted nervously. "I found a disk with ShinRa secrets, details on the SOLDIER project."

Sephiroth gasped in surprise, ShinRa was not going to take this news well.

"No," Cloud said flatly. "You didn't. Someone gave you the information, and it didn't come from ShinRa. Who?"

Fuhito glared at him with narrowed eyes. "Why do you care? It will serve AVALANCHE well enough once the project is complete? Unless, you're not really AVALANCHE."

"This again? You are almost as paranoid as Hojo," Cloud said.

"You have the passwords, but you never did say…"

"I am with AVALANCHE," Cloud said slowly, carefully enunciating his words. "I lead a small specialized team. We are currently investigating one of our, your, benefactors who we believe may be setting us up for ShinRa to take out."

Sephiroth could only admire how smoothly the lie fell from Cloud's tongue. At least he assumed it was a lie. There was still that niggling doubt that was creeping around the edges. How much about Cloud did he really know?

"You infiltrated ShinRa? To do a background check?" Fuhito sounded incredulous.

"The plan was already in the works. This just moved things along," Cloud said. It had to be a lie. Why would he need Yuffie to investigate AVALANCHE if he was part of it?

"Well you have nothing to worry about," Fuhito snapped. "I didn't get my information from one of AVALANCHE's usual sources."

"Now _I_ don't believe _you_," Cloud said, he leaned casually against a nearby desk, absently shuffling through scattered papers, much to Fuhito's annoyance. "You have been holed up without outside contact for the better part of the past four months."

Four months. That's about when Cloud first arrived at ShinRa. Sephiroth's niggling worry got a little stronger.

"And I know for a fact that what little outside contact you have is too heavily monitored for your source to have come from outside of AVALANCHE," Cloud continued. He hadn't told Yuffie to investigate AVALANCHE, Sephiroth realized, but to look for _connections_ to AVALANCHE. The distinction could mean nothing, or everything. "So, who gave you the information?"

Fuhito pursed his lips together and the two men stared at each other across the room. The scientist broke first. "It was that bastard Corneo," he said. "I always said he was playing both sides. We already knew he was paying bribes to Shinra to run that sordid little den of his."

Cloud nodded and stood up. "Alright."

"Alright?" Fuhito asked in surprise as Cloud ambled casually towards the door. "That's… that's it?"

"That's it," Cloud agreed. "I guess we don't need you anymore."

Even Sephiroth was shocked at the speed of his actions. He went from a completely relaxed, languid pose to a forward strike faster than the human brain could process the movement. Fuhito didn't know what hit him, the narrow v of the Hollow Blade punched through his chest and out his back. Cloud withdrew the blade and with a casual roll of the wrist, spun the blade leaving a spatter of blood on the floor.

Cloud tapped out a command sequence on a nearby control panel and Sephiroth could hear the machinery groan as the water started to cycle out of the cylinder he was trapped in. Within moments it was empty and the glass slid open with a soft hiss.

"Took your time," Sephiroth grumbled, tugging at the loosened metal bindings. His hair was soaked and he had no clothes in the middle of hostile territory.

"Sorry, that's not Mako is it?" Cloud didn't really sound concerned, it was fairly obvious that it wasn't. "There should be clothes in the cabinet over there."

And sure enough there were, several of the lockers had various other items including the generic military uniforms in various sizes still wrapped in the plastic coverings. He considered not asking, briefly. "How did you know?"

"Having a ninja around is useful," Cloud said. He pulled a small roll of leather and spread out another toolkit on the table.

The apparent non-sequitur made no sense to Sephiroth, unless he meant… "Yuffie?" She could not be a ninja, she was loud, and boisterous, and… and loud. And wasn't she part of the WolfHaven project anyway? What would a ShinRa affiliate be doing with a Wusheng ninja? Rumor had it that negotiations were… tense, though no one has actually said 'war' yet everyone was thinking it.

"Hmm-mm," Cloud agreed absently. Sephiroth quickly pulled on a uniform and tied back his wet hair. "How's your demolitions?"

"More theory then practice," Sephiroth said, his practical experience with demolitions involved lobbing a Fira at it and if it was still standing hit a couple of time. He walked over to stand by Cloud. His bare feet slapped wetly on the concrete floor, there were no boots of a reasonable size that he could find. "What are you doing?"

"Shutting down their little hide-a-way," Cloud said, as he pulled out various items from the leather pouches. Now that he was closer Sephiroth could see that it was a bomb kit, not ShinRa issue. There were tiny shards of weapons-grade Materia each pouch labeled in careful print Fire, Aero, 1000 Needles, Armor Pierce, Critical Hit, All, Darkness, and Confuse. With this kit someone could easily make bombs for any number of tasks: kill, incapacitate, or just do a ton of structural damage.

"Fire is the keystone in the matrix," Cloud said placing one of the Fire shards in a Materia slot that was little more than a twist of metal wire to hold the shard in place. "Aero feeds the fire, and Critical Hit to maximize the damage." He picked up another twist of a thicker metal and a small reservoir of raw Mako. "It's a basic spring load, the timer pulls the pin, the hinge snaps, and the Mako meets the Materia." Cloud placed the various pieces together almost as quickly as he spoke, deft hands twisting the wires together with deadly precision building a bomb no bigger than Sephiroth's fist that could probably take out the better part of the building they were standing in. "Don't jostle it."

Sephiroth pulled up a chair and copied Cloud's method for wiring a small bomb. He moved slowly, careful with the unfamiliar motions. Cloud had completed three more by the time Sephiroth built the one to Cloud's specifications.

"Set the timer for ten minutes," Cloud said. Once they had built a dozen of the firebombs. "That should give us enough time to place these and get out of here."

"We'll be fighting our way out once they realize that Fuhito is dead," Sephiroth cautioned, but did as he said. He was actually surprised that no one had come in yet.

"We don't want to give them time to dismantle the bombs," Cloud said, then added with a lazy smile. "What's life without a bit of challenge? Ready?"

Cloud wanted three of the bombs set in the lab to destroy the computers and equipment. The rest were placed in key locations throughout the building on load bearing walls and pillars. They met the enemy first, right outside of the lab, two guards stationed by the door. Both were killed before they recognized Cloud as a threat. Their element of surprise was lost soon after and the building was flooded with eerie red light. No siren though, but that made sense after a moment's thought. They must not have wanted any internal squabbles to disrupt the outside community and draw attention to their presence.

Ten minutes was still cutting it a little close. There was resistance at first, a few scattered troopers and patchwork monsters that must have been the result of some of Fuhito's early experimentation, but as they reached the last levels most of the enemy had cleared out. They had just exited the building themselves when it collapsed in a firestorm. The sound was deafening with the crack of concrete and the roar of fire. Sephiroth didn't hear any screams, but then he suspected that at this point most of the AVALANCHE soldiers had either died or fled. Sephiroth shivered, the wave of intense heat just emphasized the cold. His hair was a line of literal ice down his back, and he was standing barefoot in the snow. He really should have put on even ill-fitting shoes when he had the chance.

"C'mon," Cloud said. "Let's get you back to the lodge."

People were starting to pop out of nearby lodges to point and stare. A few of them glanced at Cloud and Sephiroth, but once they noticed Cloud's First Class badge and belt they quickly found other things more interesting.


	11. Chapter 11

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 11

… … …

Cloud ushered him back to their lodge. AVALANCHE's hideout was in one of the more remote buildings but it wasn't too far from the main settlement. Sephiroth's feet were still numb with cold by the time they made it inside.

"You shouldn't have to worry about frostbite yet," Cloud told him as he tucked the bomb kit and other items into his pack. "But take a warm shower anyways, thaw out a bit."

"Join me," Sephiroth suggested, reaching out to run a hand along Cloud's bare arm. In the time they had spent together Sephiroth had gotten more comfortable in asking for what he wanted. Cloud's skin was like silk pulled taut over corded steel. Sephiroth loved touching Cloud, he was as much the perfectly honed weapon that Sephiroth was built to be.

Cloud's hands slowed, but he didn't stop. He shook his head. "We should start getting ready for the trip back to Midgar. Now that the mission is complete there's no more reason to stay."

Sephiroth leaned against him, reaching down to brush against Cloud's ear with his lips. "You can do that in a bit," Sephiroth said, sliding his hand along Cloud's hip. "I want you to fuck me right now."

He could hear Cloud's breath growing harsher. Sephiroth let his hand tease lightly over Cloud's crotch, he was hard. The heavy material of his pants was pulled tight over his erection. Cloud's hand snaked up and gripped Sephiroth by the back of his neck pulling him in for a kiss, hot and fierce.

"Do you, now?" Cloud asked, his voice low and rough, dangerous. It sent a thrill of desire down the length of Sephiroth's spine.

"Yes," he breathed.

"On your knees," Cloud growled. Sephiroth obeyed before he had time to even think about it, his legs folding under him. Still gripping Sephiroth by the nape of his neck, Cloud pulled him forward to rub his cheek against Cloud's cloth covered erection. Sephiroth quickly undid the belt and fastenings, freeing Cloud's member. He reveled in the soft feel of the skin against his cheek a moment before taking Cloud into his mouth.

At first Cloud let him lick and suck, explore at Sephiroth's own pace. He had already learned that Cloud liked the slightest scrape of teeth followed by the soothing slide of tongue. It didn't take long until Cloud's grip tightened and he took greater control over Sephiroth's movements, his hips thrusting forward faster and deeper. Sephiroth let his hands trail down over his own erection, straining at the borrowed clothing. Clothing that hadn't fit very well in the first place, was getting to be very uncomfortable now.

"Do not," Cloud tugged sharply at his hair. "Do not touch yourself without my permission, and don't you dare come until I say you can."

Sephiroth made a soft whining noise, he really wanted to stroke himself to ease the growing tension, but he loved the hard command in Cloud's voice and the inner conflict between obeying and rebelling ratcheted up his desire to new heights. At the sound Cloud just thrust harder and faster. Sephiroth let his hands slide up Clouds bared thighs to grip tightly both for leverage and to keep from disobeying Clouds order.

He could tell that Cloud was close, and he hummed softly the low vibration bringing Cloud even closer to the edge. Instead of thrusting deep one last time, Cloud pulled back leaving only the tip of his cock between Sephiroth's lips. Cloud's hand wrapped around his own length to continue the hard pace. When he came the hot liquid flooded Sephiroth's mouth faster than he could swallow and it spilled past his lips. The flood of liquid in his mouth sent another jolt of need through Sephiroth's body, his unconsciously rolled his hips trying find some ease from the driving need.

Cloud shifted back, his limp member falling from Sephiroth's lips, though Cloud's hands remain at the sides of Sephiroth's face lightly brushing sweat soaked strands aside. "Sephiroth, I want you to come. Now."

And he did. Sephiroth closed his eyes and moaned as a wave of pleasure washed through him at Cloud's command. His voice was rich and strong. The order, a compulsion. After the shuddering finally stilled he looked up at Cloud, who was watching him with a look of dark satisfaction in his eyes but also a look of regret. Sephiroth could feel the cloth of his pants wet and heavy with the spreading stain of his semen.

"Very nice, the only thing that would make this picture more perfect would be my come dripping from your ass as well." Cloud said. He looked a Sephiroth for a long moment, as if memorizing the moment, before tucked his member back inside his pants with a sigh. "You really should get cleaned up now."

Sephiroth nodded and got shakily to his feet and made his way to the bathroom. The water was hot and helped his aching muscles, but he still wished that Cloud had opted to join him. He wished that they could extend the mission a little longer, maybe a couple of days for some sweeps of the area to catch any lingering traces of AVALANCHE. The back of their operations here may have been broken but they were far from gone.

And he worried about what going back to Midgar would mean for him and Cloud. He had a sinking suspicion given the look of regret in Cloud's eyes, but Sephiroth was trying to avoid thinking about the worst possibilities.

Cloud was sitting on the first bed when Sephiroth exited the shower. Previously scattered items were neatly packed away, his Fusion Sword leaning against the wall within easy reach nearby. He fiddled with his company issue PHS, turning it over and over in his hands. His expression was completely blank.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth paused outside the bathroom door, steam billowing out around him. "Is something wrong?"

"Heidegger is sending a chopper up from Modeoheim to take us back to Midgar," Cloud said, his voice was completely empty of any emotional intonation. "It'll be here within the hour."

"Oh," Sephiroth said, feeling a sense of dread starting in the pit of his stomach.

Cloud looked up at him. "You know we can't continue like this back in Midgar." Sephiroth wanted to ask 'why not?' He wanted to argue. "There are rules against fraternization between ranks, and with you being my student, that is just one more strike against us."

Sephiroth knew that. It hadn't been something he had really thought about, or pulled up the company handbook to read the actually words, but he knew it. He also knew that it would be Cloud who would be punished. Sephiroth might face some social ostracization, but Cloud would be the one facing formal charges. There were a hundred reasons why Cloud was right. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt. "It's not a formal mentorship."

"I still am in a position of power over you." Cloud shook his head. "I abused that position."

"Are you going to tell me 'it's just our little secret?'" Sephiroth asked harshly. No matter what was said, while ShinRa and the law may consider Sephiroth to be an adult, there were many who still would not, and many more were inclined to treat him as an inexperienced child when it suited them. Sephiroth thought that Cloud had understood him. His reasons for asking and had the grace to treat him like an adult outside of the bed as well.

Cloud gave him a reproachful look. "I expect you be adult enough to determine when and to whom to disclose any personal information."

Sephiroth flinched, embarrassed that Cloud's word's just echoed his thoughts and highlighted how childish he was acting. He said softly, "I wanted it."

"I know," Cloud said. He doesn't say that he wanted it too, but Sephiroth knows it all the same. "It doesn't change the rules."

Sephiroth nodded. He didn't like it, hated it, actually. But he didn't want to appear any more childish then he already had. The last thing he wanted was to alienate Cloud for something neither of them had any control over. It wasn't like Sephiroth was going to remain Second Class forever either. Heidegger did say he would get a promotion out of this, and Cloud had successfully completed the mission as required. He just had to wait until they got back to Midgar.

It was a long flight. Six hours of Cloud, who was not terribly expressive in the first place, having reverted completely back to the silent rock he had been before. Sephiroth now knew that was due to Cloud being uncomfortable or nervous, and that said more than anything that Cloud was really unhappy with the situation. Not that the realization was much of a sop to Sephiroth's wounded pride.

The helicopter landed at one of ShinRa's main docks, technically located in Sector Two it was close to the Central Hub and the ShinRa Complex. Sephiroth was eager to get to get back to Heidegger and report a successful mission, and eager to get some space between himself and Cloud. Maybe a little too eager, he was focused more on where he wanted to be then paying close attention to what was going on around him. He didn't get a flicker of warning before Cloud's hands were pushing him aside, the teeth grating squeal of metal against metal, and a flash of black SOLDIER uniform and black hair.

Sephiroth rolled across the concrete, scrambling to get away from the unknown attacker, and get to his feet before his attacker could rally another attack. Drawing Ashura, Sephiroth slashed the blade around him in a full circle, clearing the space and using the momentum to pull himself to his feet. He was almost disappointed to find that there was no one around him.

Cloud and a man he had never seen before in a SOLDIER First Class uniform were facing off across the tarmac. While Sephiroth could hardly be bothered to know the names of every man and woman in ShinRa, the SOLDIER the program wasn't _that_ big, and he was able to recognize most operatives by sight. This man has long shoulder length hair, similar to the way Angeal wore his, only ragged and rough where Angeal was always neatly trimmed with clean lines. The stranger also had breathtaking blue eyes, sea to Cloud's sky, and they glowed just as brightly with Mako.

"Zack?" Cloud asked, his voice sounding unusually breathless and weak.

The stranger smiled, a bright flash of teeth that lit up his whole face. "Hey, Cloud. Long time no see."

"How- ?" Whatever question Cloud meant to ask he couldn't seem to get out, only gape at the other man in shock.

"Same as you," the man, Zack, said.

Zack waved his free hand with a negligent gesture while the other hefted a heavy Buster Sword, the mirror of the one he had seen Angeal carrying, complete with two linked Materia slots. Like Angeal he carried the blade so that the back edge was leading. According to Angeal it was statement of his reluctance to kill, the young man was surprisingly pacifistic for being in the military. Unlike Angeal who fought mostly barehanded, Zack held the Buster Sword in his hands and when he struck it would be with the dull spine of the sword that would hit his opponent instead of the sharp edge. Not that it would make much of difference. If he really was SOLDIER with strength alone he could drive the dull edge through anything he wanted to. The man also carried a second heavy broadsword at his back that did not look like it was made from any earthly metal but was oddly crystalline in composition. Cloud glanced back at Sephiroth, with a worried frown marring his features. He shook his head. "Zack, no."

"Damnit, Cloud!" Zack yelled sounding like a man pushed to the edge by frustration. "You can't protect everyone. You can't save him. You _know_ what he's capable of. You're not helping, and you're just making it worse. Making _him_ worse."

"Zack, I-" Sephiroth hated how weak Cloud sounded. He hated Zack for doing this to him.

"Don't make me go through you, too," Zack said, hefting the heavy sword in his hands. Sephiroth could see the tension in the other man's jaw. Unhappy with the situation, but unwilling to back down. "Because I will, if I have to."

For some reason that steeled Cloud's resolve. He gave a small bitter smile. "And here I thought you were always the optimist."

Zack looked struck for a moment. "Don't think you know me," he snarled. He spun the Buster Sword in his grip, a full turn and a half, so the sharp edge was leading. "_You_ have _never_ known _me_."

Roaring out the last words Zack attacked, Cloud met the Buster Sword with the full might of the Fusion Sword and they clashed, again and again metal striking against metal, impossibly fast for such massive weapons.

Seeing an opening while Zack was focused on Cloud, Sephiroth rushed from the side, only to find Ashura turned aside by one of Clouds long, slender back blades. Cloud pushed them both back, keeping himself firmly between the two of them.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked, shocked and confused. Why would he block Sephiroth's blade?

"Zack," Cloud said, his voice was pleading but his own blade did not lower one inch. "Don't do this."

"You don't coddle a mad dog, you put him down." He attacked again, this time there was another scream of protesting metal, and the two combatants broke apart again. The Buster Sword had been sheared off and the better portion of the heavy blade was left on the ground. Zack sighed in regret at the broken weapon in his hand.

"Damn," he swore and tossed the useless hilt aside, and drew the crystalline sword at his back. "I brought the old girl out for old time's sake, but I suppose I should've known she wouldn't be up to it. Guess we have to do this the hard way."

"Ultima?" Cloud asked sounding surprised.

"So, you do recognize my new baby," Zack grinned and kissed the blade. "I'd wondered if you would."

"Zack, what happened?" Cloud asked softly.

Sephiroth could hear the sound of running feet and the click of guns being brought to bear. It seems that someone finally alerted the MPs to the altercation. He could hear shouts of "freeze" and "don't move" but like Cloud he was too focused on Zack to acknowledge them. Zack shook his head.

"You know what happened, Cloud," Zack said. He put his sword up. "The same thing that always happens. There is no future where he does not go insane."

The words could have been written off, maybe Zack was referring to someone else, but the finger that he raised and pointed at Sephiroth left little doubt exactly who he meant. Sephiroth felt like he had been physically struck by that proclamation. The man was serious. There was a hard certainty in his eyes that actually made Sephiroth wonder himself. Maybe he really was going crazy but it was happening so gradually that he didn't even notice. Frozen in shock and fear, Sephiroth fought down the unfamiliar feeling of panic.

There was an explosion of light as Zack cast some spell over himself, and then he was gone. The MPs were shouting about Exit Materia and "he couldn't have gone far." Sephiroth didn't care, he looked to Cloud. The man on the recording, and this Zack, both were concerned about him going insane, why? Cloud was the only connection between them. Sephiroth could only hope he had the answers as well.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked. "What was he talking about?"

Cloud looked at him, and for a moment, before the mask slipped back into place, he wore an expression of utter despair. Cloud simply shook his head. "I don't know."

Sephiroth stepped back, stung. Cloud knew. Cloud knew, but he wasn't going to tell. Sephiroth could guess why, Cloud saw him as someone weaker who needed to be protected. A student. A _child_. Sephiroth repressed the urge to snarl at that thought, but he still glared at Cloud through narrow eyes. Until, Cloud saw him fully as an equal he was not going to tell Sephiroth what was going on.

"C'mon, let's get back to ShinRa," Cloud said. Sephiroth nodded, and followed. There was a man he needed to see about a promotion.

Heidegger was easy to find as the director rarely left his office, getting in to see him, however, was another matter entirely. Sephiroth glared down at the secretary dressed in a severe navy skirt suit. He was aiming for Cloud's cool expressionless façade. He was either failing miserably or the woman was made of sterner stuff. Of course she did work directly under Heidegger.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said, unfailingly meek and polite, yet not budging from her position. "You need an appointment to see the director."

Sephiroth bit back a frustrated sigh. "Before my last mission he mentioned a promotion; I just want to be sure the paperwork went through."

Not entirely true, but her expression softened and she tapped a few short commands on her computer. "What was the name again?"

"Sephiroth."

"I'm sorry. I don't have anything in our system."

"It would just take a moment of Heidegger's time." He was not begging. Really, he would not stoop so low to beg _Heidegger_ for anything, not even this. But, damn, if it wasn't close.

"Not without an appointment."

"If I would like to make an appointment," Sephiroth asked, dreading the answer. Everyone knew that this was the business side's version of a dismissal; he would never get the appointment. Oh, she would probably schedule one, ridiculously far out, and then it would be double booked or rescheduled or something until he just gave up.

"There is an opening in six weeks," she said, pen poised over paper.

"Never mind," Sephiroth said. He left the offices and made his way back to his bunk. The few trinkets that he had picked up from Icicle Inn and tucked away in his pack had been placed on his desk. The rest of the items from the trip had all been ShinRa issue and had disappeared into the depths of the Complex's service underbelly not to be seen again until requisitioned for another trip to less hospitable climes. Oddly enough the borrowed AVALANCHE uniform was left, cleaned and neatly folded on his desk chair. He wondered what the janitorial service made of it.

Sephiroth tucked it away into his locker and sat down at the computer terminal. Heidegger may have been avoiding him but he still wanted his debriefing, through an intermediary, with a full report on AVALANCHE and Cloud. Sephiroth wondered for a moment if they had made some of the same connections, then he actually read the questions and realized that no, Heidegger hadn't associated Cloud with any anti-ShinRa activists, he was just paranoid.

After Sephiroth sent off the last of his reports, he dug out the WolfHaven disk and settled in for a long, dull evening. As Professor Dessau began speaking, Sephiroth turned the volume down very low. It got hot and stuffy in the bunks during the dry Midgar summers, so he left his door open for better circulation, and he didn't want anyone else to overhear the contents of this disk. He thought it would be best to verify the truth of the matter before letting anyone else know this disk existed. Though the information that he found in his research in Mideel, and what little he could find from limited access while on mission at Icicle Inn, much of it seemed to be consistent with what he had watched of it so far. Only, Aerlheim had no records of any Professor Dessau, asscociate or otherwise.

"Look at them, there isn't anyone who didn't come." Dessau was saying as the camera turned to focus on the audience. "ShinRa and WRO, of course, they've been to every single one. And look, there's Highwind Aeronautics." The camera zoomed in on a man that could only be Cid Highwind. Sephiroth may have only met the airman once but Cid had distinctive mannerisms that were hard to forget, though the Highwind in the recording looked to be about thirty years older. The years had not been kind to the man, his skin was weathered with wind and sun, and his blond hair may still have been thick but it ran more towards silver then gold.

Sephiroth paused the recording and stared thoughtfully at the man on the monitor, trying to fit the different pieces together. Cid and Tuesti-presuming that they really were the same people-appeared to be older, but the President Shinra appeared to be _younger_. Unless that wasn't the current president, but the _next_ one, the man in the recording could be Rufus given another fifteen or twenty years. Except that Cloud and Yuffie-and was that Red?-all appeared to be the same age as they were now.

He shook his head and scanned forward, he would have to come back to this puzzle later. He made a note to find out more on Highwind, and his family. Sephiroth forwarded the disk to the main part of the lecture, stopping when a helmeted man in a First Class Uniform appeared on the screen behind Professor Dessau. Though Sephiroth was determined to find out if there were any answers on the disk his mind inevitably wandered, this time back to Cloud as the image of the other man flashed across the screen.

Cloud might have been avoiding him, which Sephiroth thought odd at first, figuring that Cloud would have stuck to him like glue after the attack by that SOLDIER, Zack, but with Sephiroth's moods lately this was probably for the best. Sephiroth was fairly sure that if he saw the other man he'd do something stupid. Like beg.

Strangely enough it wasn't just the sex that he was missing, though Sephiroth was quickly discovering that after the real thing his hand alone was not a welcome substitute. No, what he really missed was that easy camaraderie between himself and Cloud during their time in Icicle Inn. During his mentorship Sephiroth always felt more relaxed and comfortable in Cloud's presence then with anyone else, mostly because Cloud was relaxed and at ease with him. He'd never really noticed it before but people seemed to be on edge when he was around, everyone except Cloud. Now, all of that was gone.

"…Sephiroth was the only first generation SOLDIER to leave the labs." Sephiroth jumped at his name and focused on the screen. Professor Dessau held up the small remote and pointed to the screen behind him and pictures flashed through images of men and women who had been heavily mutated, many looking like older versions of the children that they rescued from the Mythril Mines.

There was a man with expanded and deformed musculature over the right side of his chest that lead to an elongated arm with bones that out grew the flesh, pressing against skin pulled unnaturally taut; a woman with golden cat slit eyes and three inch talons that had ripped through her fingertips; a girl barely older then Camille with mottled grey skin and her eyelids fused over her eyes, if she even had them anymore. The parade of horrors went on, some of the pictures had been taken with the person turned to give the camera the best view of the mutation. Too many times the subject was lying dead on a steel table, not having survived the mutation that happened too quickly or too violently.

Professor Dessau put the remote down and turned to his audience. Sephiroth's attention was riveted to him. "As you can see, what distinguishes the first generation SOLDIER from the latter versions, is the blatantly inhuman traits that are expressed by the subject. Even Sephiroth is well known for the cat-like eyes."

That made a disturbing amount of sense. He has been a part of the SOLDIER program for as long as he could remember, which meant that he would have had to been one of the earlier subjects since the project just wasn't that old. He didn't remember seeing any of the other subjects that were in Professor Dessau's lecture, but then Hojo had a lot of projects running. He could easily have simply not been in the same lab at the same time, or he could have seen them and not recognized them for what they were.

Sephiroth raised his hand to touch his cheek right under his eye, unconsciously brushing his fingers across the same place that Fuhito had just days earlier. Everyone looked at his eyes as signs of some poorly applied mutation. Not just Professor Dessau and Fuhito, but the children from the Mythril Mine had seen it as some form of kinship between them. Was it possible that they were right? Except that-

Except that Hojo was notoriously intolerant of failure. He rarely would let even the slightest imperfect or blemish in subject slide. Sephiroth's eyes could not be sign of failure, because Hojo would tolerate no failure in perfection. It was a grueling standard to live up to, but as much as Sephiroth hated it he had trouble trying to imagine his life any other way.

Sephiroth paused the recording and frowned thoughtfully at the frozen image. This was another sign of inconsistency that he had found, but he couldn't tell what it meant. Obviously it was based in part on Hojo's published papers. That could not be disputed. The real question was: did Dessau really have access to ShinRa records or was he making stuff up to fill in the blanks? Was the ShinRa "president" on the tape really one of the ShinRa presidents? And if this was a hoax, why? Who were they trying to fool?

Sephiroth jumped at the soft knocking at the door. He glanced up to find Angeal standing in the doorway. Too surprised at the unexpected arrival to greet the other young man properly, he just stared while Angeal shifted his feet awkwardly.

"There's some play that Genesis has decided to drag as many of us as he can into going. I wondered if you would be interested." Angeal didn't sound terribly enthused, and a play didn't sound very interesting, the 'no' was just at the tip of his tongue when Angeal gave him a sheepish smile. "I love Genesis like a brother but there are some things no man can suffer alone, and everyone else has said no. Do this for me, and I will owe you, a lot."

"Okay," he found himself saying. There were so many reasons that this was a bad idea. Granted, Zack-being most of them-hadn't made a reappearance, but he was probably waiting for another moment when Sephiroth was distracted to attack, but living his life cowering in the ShinRa building from a madman who was out to kill him for no apparent reason was not conductive to a long and healthy and sane life either. Although, it might give him some time to sit down and actually go though that damn recording in more than just odd bits and pieces.

Angeal's smile widened and he gave a relieved sigh. "Thanks, we should get going though, Genesis gets bitchy if we end up with bad seats because we're late."

"He does this often?" Sephiroth asked sending the file and shutting off his computer.

"Often enough," Angeal shrugged. "He's always liked the theater, but something about this work has him obsessed."

Not sure what else to say Sephiroth followed Angeal silently to the front lobby where an impatient Genesis paced, in his hands a battered paperback book in his hands. He glanced up at them. "So, you did find someone, I'd wondered. Hello, Sephiroth."

"Genesis," Sephiroth nodded in greeting.

"Now can we go?" Genesis asked. "The section we can afford is shitty enough without being stuck in the back."

Angeal rolled his eyes at Sephiroth behind Genesis' back, but they all followed him out into Sector Eight. The theater wasn't far from Cloud's hotel, and Sephiroth couldn't help stealing glances at the building. Not that he could identify which of the distant windows, lit or dark, belonged to the suite Cloud shared with Yuffie.

Genesis had some kind of season pass to the theater, but they had to stand in line for tickets for him and Angeal. Angeal was dragged along by Genesis often enough to make a purchase of a pass worthwhile, if Genesis' grumblings were anything to go by, but refused to do so on general principals. They did get "tolerable" seats in the lower mezzanine, weaving through the crowds and up the narrow staircase made Sephiroth wish he had grabbed Ashura. Not that weapons were allowed. A sign by the ticket both informed theater patrons that weapons longer than six inches were banned, as were bare feet and solicitations of other theater patrons.

The play, according to the small programme given to him by an usher, was based on a book of poetry written by an unknown author and never completed. Sephiroth found the archaic language and style to be somewhat stilted but the story of a man torn between promises made to his comrades and love for the woman who saved him was stirring in its way. Even so, it was a long play, and Sephiroth found it increasingly difficult to sit for lengthy periods in such crowded quarters, by the time it was over he mostly just felt relief.

"So, which of the three friends to you identify with?" Genesis asked him as they left the theater. "Surely, with the praise heaped on you by Hojo and ShinRa you would by the Hero."

He wondered if the Hero ever felt as trapped by duty and obligations as he did by ShinRa's rules and regulations. As to which one he saw himself as, Sephiroth couldn't decide. The Wanderer, perhaps, lost and turning aside all comfort seeking an unknown gift that might never be found. He felt more like the Prisoner, torn between factions. For the character in the play, though, the two warring nations were clearly defined. If only it were so simple for Sephiroth.

"You know," Angeal started, slowly dragging the words out. Their slow, ambling walk had slowed even further, and they came to a stop near the fountain in front of the theater. The crowd swirled and eddied around them as they talked. "One thing that always troubled me about the Hero. You only see him in the opening acts, and later on he is referred to in past tense. I think he's dead."

"Not an uncommon interpretation, if somewhat plebian," Genesis said with a bored sigh. "The story focuses on these two because that's where the primary conflict of man versus man and man versus himself takes place."

"Honor dictates the Hero would be there where his friends need him," Angeal said. "The only thing that could stop him from being there is death."

"Or the Wanderer didn't tell him that he found the Prisoner, or the war was too important…" Genesis ticked off the points on his fingers.

"I would be there for you," Angeal said. "Honor demands-"

The phrase tugged at a memory. "Honor does not demand that you throw your life away, but that it must be paid for in blood and pain." Sephiroth said, half musing to himself.

"Whose, yours or theirs?" Genesis asked, looking interested.

"Yes," Angeal said with a laugh. "But the play does say that the Hero is the epitome of honor and duty, but the play later says that 'no honor remains.'"

"'My friend, the fates are cruel; There are no dreams, no honor remains. The arrow has left the bow of the goddess'."

"You have it memorized already?" Angeal asked incredulously.

"Just the important bits," Genesis said smugly. "The Wanderer doesn't mean that there is no honor in the world, just that there is none left within him. The Hero's off being perfect somewhere else."

"There is no perfection," Sephiroth said. He reveled in saying it, though was still working on actually _believing_ it.

"Like you would know," Genesis grumbled. "Your life is perfect. The highest accolades, the best tutors-"

"Genesis, not now," Angeal begged sounding tired. An old argument perhaps? The two had known each other for a long time, it would only make sense that they would have many such arguments and conversations that had been well tread like a familiar path. It highlighted how much of an outsider Sephiroth was. Not just with Angeal and Genesis, but with everyone. He had no longstanding arguments, or jokes that had been told and retold until they weren't funny anymore. Given time Sephiroth thought that he may have had something like that with Cloud, but now… Sephiroth shoved the thought and the ache away.

"Then when? You know Cloud should be mentoring you not him," Genesis pointed at Sephiroth dramatically. "If he's going to specialize in Wusheng weapons he should be under Shiro."

Sephiroth was surprised at the vehemence in Genesis' tone and he reigned in an immediate defensive reaction, Cloud was _his_, but then, there was some logic to Genesis' argument. Angeal and Cloud both specialized in heavy broadswords. Except that Sephiroth wouldn't be carrying Ashura if not for Cloud. If Cloud had wanted to train someone in the same style he could have easily gotten Sephiroth a comparable broadsword, but he didn't. He gave Sephiroth the weapon that was best suited to Sephiroth. _But, how did he know?_

"It's Cloud's decision who he wants to mentor, –hey!" Angeal staggered forward a step as a man from the crowd slammed into him.

"Sorry, man," A familiar voice slurred sounding slightly drunk, before the man disappeared into the crowd again.

"Ouch," Angeal muttered to himself, rubbing at his shoulder. "He had some punch."

"What a great Second Class you make," Genesis snickered. "Taken out by a drunk civilian."

"Hardly," Angeal said. "Although, I don't feel so well."

He didn't look so well, either. Suddenly pale and shaky, Angeal looked like he shouldn't be standing. Then Sephiroth's mind belatedly alerted him exactly to whom the vaguely familiar voice belonged to. Sephiroth swore softly and leapt to the rim of the stone fountain to give himself some additional height to see over the crowd. There, over by the alley stood Zack, his black First Class uniform barely covered by a battered brown leather trench coat stood watching them, with a hypodermic syringe twirling skillfully between nimble fingers.

… … …

AN:Sorry about the long wait. For those of who don't follow my (admittedly sparse) livejournal, the posting caught up with my writing and I had to focus on just writing for a bit. Now that I have a good portion of the story written I can start posting again on a semi-regular basis.

As an apology for the delay I also wrote up another meta segment, Game Mechanics in Fiction. Go here:

oniko–inuki. livejournal 19591. html

Just take the spaces out, or follow the link on my profile.


	12. Chapter 12

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 12

… … …

"Genesis, you should get Angeal back to ShinRa," Sephiroth advised in a low tense voice. His eye fixed on Zack, who was watching him in turn with a lazy smile playing across his lips.

"No, shit," Genesis snarled. "Help with his other arm."

"I'm fine," Angeal said. "I can still work."

"'Walk'," Genesis corrected him. "And no, you can't. Sephiroth, you coming?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there," Sephiroth said absently, his attention focused on the rogue SOLDIER.

Genesis was too busy focused on Angeal to care or pay much attention to Sephiroth, which suited Sephiroth just fine. He hopped down to the ground and pushed his way through the crowd. Very little pushing actually required, most people were more than happy to get out of his way. Zack was still gone by the time Sephiroth reached the location he had last seen the man.

"Zack!" He yelled, looking around and straining his senses to locate the other man as he strode down the alley. "If you were trying to kill me, you got the wrong man."

"Not everything is about you." Sephiroth spun around to see Zack leaning casually against the grey faux stone façade of the Sector Eight Hotel. The brown coat was gone, as was the needle. The man didn't seem to be armed, or rather, he wasn't carrying the massive Ultima.

"You said you wanted to kill me," Sephiroth said. Since Mideel he hadn't been neglecting his barehanded fighting techniques, but he couldn't assume that Zack didn't have another secondary weapon or wasn't similarly trained. Sephiroth really wished he could have brought Ashura along.

"'Want' is… not quite correct," Zack said. "More like, 'have to', but not today."

"Why?" Sephiroth asked suspiciously. "Need to kill Angeal instead."

Anger flashed in Zack's blue eyes, he pushed off from the wall and stood with his feet planted firmly shoulder-width apart, his hands curled into fists at his side. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"So, explain it to me."

"Ask Cloud, you wouldn't believe me," Zack said with a shake of his head. He forced himself to relax and ran his finger through his hair before stalking past Sephiroth to the mouth of the ally without pausing to look back.

"Cloud won't tell me anything," Sephiroth muttered under his breath. If Zack's hearing was enhanced enough to catch it, it didn't matter, he didn't return.

"I'll tell you," a feminine voice offered. Sephiroth looked up to fine Yuffie perched on a windowsill five stories up. He could see no obvious way for her to have gotten up there- -he knew for a fact that their suite was on the other side of the building- -but she perched there as easily as on a park bench.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the Gold Saucer?"

"Pshaw, no!" she said with a wave of her hand. "I got back days ago."

"Hn."

She went still. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

She pointed at him. "That, that, being you, thing. Don't do that, it's creepy."

"Don't be me," he said flatly, trying to figure out what she meant. He was fairly certain he was insulted, but parsing out her statement was too confusing, especially when you consider that he was trying to copy _Cloud's_ mannerisms.

"Look, do you want me to tell you or not?" She scowled at him.

Sephiroth blinked at her in surprise as her offer finally registered. He thought about it, suspicious of her quick and generous offer. He'd been more than ready to listen to anything Zack was willing to tell him, but getting that same information from Yuffie made him hesitate. Why?

After a moment he realized that it was because he instinctively knew that he could more readily believe what Zack would tell him over Yuffie. Zack was a declared enemy, true, but lying wouldn't forward his cause, especially if the truth was potentially painful and might create an opening for attack. On the other hand, Yuffie was Cloud's friend. She was invested in protecting him and was a proclaimed ninja, a master of stealth and disguise, lying to him about whatever secrets Cloud wanted to keep in an effort to head Sephiroth off would probably be second nature to her.

"I think I would rather Cloud tell me himself," Sephiroth said. Lies or truth, he'd rather get it from Cloud then from her.

She shrugged and hopped down, landing lightly on her feet. "Well, don't say I never offered you nothin'. Ta ta, for now."

Left alone and with nothing to show for chasing after the rogue SOLDIER, Sephiroth checked his PHS to locate Genesis and Angeal before making his way to the SOLDIER medical center. Most SOLDIERs could take care of themselves, and often preferred a quick Cure and Esuna to more standard procedures, but when Materia didn't cut it there was Deepground. It was shoved out of the way in the lower levels of the building. Rumor had it that Hojo extended it even further down below ground, but Sephiroth had never known anyone to have actually been down that far. The floors SOLDIER used were at ground level, even with the slums, and were completely sealed off from the outside. You had to go up to the plate level entrance to get out.

Unlike the Medical Ward upstairs for standard patients. down here there were banks of Mako tubes in addition to curtained beds. Angeal wasn't the only SOLDIER in for treatments or healing, several of the tubes had someone suspended in liquid while various machines took measurements. Sephiroth quickly located Genesis pacing at the end of one of the rows. Hollander and a few other technical assistants were hovering over Angeal who was suspended in a dense Mako mixture. Sephiroth could barely see the man beyond a dark haze in bright green.

"Where have you been?" Genesis demanded sharply.

"Sorry," Sephiroth said. "Trying to see if I could find the guy."

"Did you?"

Sephiroth crossed his arms and leaned against the steel wall. "No."

Genesis sneered at him. "Then what good are…Sir!"

Sephiroth looked up, surprised to see Cloud approaching them. He quickly followed Genesis in a sharp salute.

"As you were," Cloud said. "I heard about what happened, do we have a report yet?"

"No, sir," Genesis shook his head.

"Hm." Cloud settled in against the wall adjacent to Sephiroth, apparently preparing to wait with them for the result. Sephiroth wondered why Cloud was interested. None of the other First Classes, not even Angeal's own First Class tutors had arrived or expressed any interest in the young SOLDIER's poisoning in the half hour since it occurred.

"Did you hear about it from Zack?" Sephiroth asked.

"Za- no, I heard from the lady at the Information Desk," Cloud said, he gave Sephiroth a hard look. "Zack?"

Sephiroth nodded. Cloud frowned and looked puzzled, like something about that didn't make sense. Cloud's confusion made Sephiroth wary. Cloud hadn't been surprised when Zack was trying to kill Sephiroth, but Zack trying to kill Angeal was puzzling. Presumably Cloud was more familiar with Zack and his motives, added to that the rogue SOLDIER's anger at being accused of killing Angeal, led Sephiroth to believe that, whatever else was going on, _Angeal_ wasn't in any danger. Now, if only they could figure out exactly what Zack _did_ do.

A startled exclamation from Hollander drew everyone's attention. He was talking excitedly with his assistants. The background noise made it more difficult to catch what the man was saying, especially with him turned away. And what was the point of enhanced hearing if he couldn't hear what he wanted to when he wanted to, anyway? He did catch a few things. "Degradation," and "reversed," and "advanced tech… get it to Scarlet."

"What's degradation?" Genesis asked, frowning after the lab techs as they excitedly scurried away.

The question was not asked of any of them in particular, just mused softly aloud, so Sephiroth was surprised when Cloud answered. "It's a condition that affects some SOLDIERS. It causes the body to deteriorate and mutate uncontrollably."

"What causes it?" Sephiroth asked, morbidly fascinated in spite of himself, especially knowing now that the SOLDIER treatment was just guided mutation. He could easily imagine so many ways that it could go wrong. Did Jenova cause it? Was it something they all were threatened with if the Jenova virus ever got out of control?

"I don't really know. I saw a lecture that mentioned it once," Cloud said with a shrug. "It was too technical for me. I think Hollander would be able to explain it to you."

Genesis snarled at Cloud's evasiveness and returned to glaring at Hollander. Sephiroth frowned. It was too much of a coincidence that the lecture Cloud was referring to was the same one that he swiped from ShinRa, but, then again, how many lectures would Cloud have attended? Sephiroth stepped away from the wall. "Let me know when Hollander finally decides to tell you anything."

"Where are you going?" Genesis asked.

"I forgot about something I need to check up on," Sephiroth said vaguely as he walked away. Ignoring Genesis' muttered 'asshole' and Cloud's thoughtful stare. Sephiroth made his way to the elevator bank and the long ride up to the barracks. He was almost certain that there would be something about Angeal's condition on the recording he stole from WolfHaven. The how and why WolfHaven had this information to begin with was a puzzle he was going to have to deal with later, after he could definitively pin down whether or not his… friend? ...now was or had been, dying.

The other question also plagued him on the long ride to the 15th floor. Was Angeal his friend? He never spent much time with the other SOLDIER. Being invited out to one play hardly counted for much of anything. But for as long as Sephiroth could remember, Angeal and Genesis were names that hovered in the background, distant relations that were rarely seen but kept careful track of. He knew about Genesis' attempt a running away to join a theater troupe when he was seven, Angeal receiving the Buster Sword from his step-father before leaving Banora to join SOLDIER. At times, Sephiroth had been jealous of their lives outside of the labs, but hadn't thought much of it, and the resentment rarely lingered for long. Then when he was permitted to join SOLDIER himself to find that they did not recognize him as clearly as he did them hurt. So, he avoided them. Until now, and this happens.

Finally reaching the 15th floor Sephiroth quickly made his way to his bunk and fished the data disk out of the back of his locker. Instead of trying to wade through the load of technical crap at the very beginning he intended to forward the recording to the point where the professor wrote the names Genesis and Angeal on the whiteboard.

"…considered a failure because he could only copy his genetic structure onto a subject's but could not take in new genetic information. Angeal was considered a success with full genesharing capabilities."

Professor Dessau turned back to the board and wrote, Project S and Sephiroth next to Project G. "At the same time Hojo was working on military applications of Jenova's genesharing ability and created Project S, Super-soldier. The idea was to copy choice genetic traits from selected monsters and other animals into subjects with the express purpose of making them stronger and faster than the average human. President Shinra, at the time was focused on a military conquest of the remainder of the Eastern Continent, favored Project S over Hollander's Project G.

"As Project G lost support and funding, other problems with the subjects started coming to light. The primary issue of degradation, due to the subjects being clones created from genetic samples from Jenova's body-"

Someone in the audience shouted a question, but none of the mikes were focused in that direction, so it was indistinct and unclear.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat the question-" The question was repeated, louder… something about girls. "-into the mike, can someone get a mike over… thank you."

The camera zoomed in on the ShinRa group. The president, it was easier to see the young Rufus in the young man now, though he had one hand over his face and looked like he wished that he was anywhere but there, while a red-headed Turk was reaching for a mike being passed to him from another young man in jeans with a headset who must have been part of the primary filming crew.

"So, uh, is this thing on?" the Turk tapped the mike causing a shriek of feedback. "…just talk into it, okay… So, if Genesis and Angeal are clones, why aren't they chicks like Jenova? Or even look like each other?"

"Ah, good question!" the professor said, he flipped the screen back to picture of Jenova's upper torso. She still looked just as creepy as the first picture Sephiroth saw of her. "What you see is the expression of the smallest fraction of DNA that the body had absorbed by this point. The host has drawn in material and samples from men, women, and monsters. It would be more accurate to say that both Genesis and Angeal are clones of men who had fallen victim to Jenova over two thousand years ago.

"Some have theorized, given Genesis nearly unprecedented connection with the Planet, that he was cloned from a pureblood Cetra and this may also have contributed to his being considered a failure as his own nature would have fought against Jenova, limiting its influence. While Angeal, we believe, was fully human without any Cetra genetic markers, did not have had the same natural defenses and was fully infected." Sephiroth felt a chill. Was this what Angeal was fighting with now?

"Remember Genesis and Angeal are not copies. Their original DNA had not been rewritten. They are clones in the traditional sense of the word. They were created by tissue samples placed in an egg and allowed to develop into a human fetus. In normal humans the body degrades naturally as they age. Presumably, the donor for the clones DNA was not a newborn, so that even as a child the clone is the same, genetically, as a thirty or forty year old man. Given the nature of the Jenova virus, this also caused uncontrollable mutation as the virus strove to compensate for the degrading bodies.

"Hollander tried to alleviate the symptoms by encouraging both Genesis and Angeal to enter the SOLDIER program. The influx of new DNA and stronger traits helped to compensate for their failing bodies, but it could only do so much-" a loud knock rattled the door in its frame, causing Sephiroth to scrabble at the keyboard, finally turning off the player. He was surprised to find Cloud on the other side of the door.

"May I come in?" Cloud asked softly. Without saying a word Sephiroth backed up further into the tiny room leaving the door open for Cloud to follow.

Cloud shut the door behind him. He turned to face Sephiroth with a solemn expression. "I wanted to apologize to you for my behavior at Icicle Inn."

"You don't have to," Sephiroth said. "I wanted it. I asked-"

"Not that," Cloud said firmly. "Never that. I… handled our last conversation badly. I'm not used to this sort of thing. I'm sorry."

The apology was heartfelt though the words only fanned the flames of anger and hurt that he had been holding back with both hands. The force of it surprised even himself. " 'Not used to this sort of thing?' Meaning what? Having to face your lover after you've already thrown him away? You came here-"

Cloud shook his head but didn't seem offended by Sephiroth's harsh words. "This. Relationships. People."

He looked so lost that Sephiroth found himself stepping towards Cloud before he could catch himself. Cloud, however, closed the remaining distance, his hand coming up to gently cup Sephiroth's face. He leaned in to press his forehead against Sephiroth's.

"I never wanted to hurt you," Cloud whispered softly. His eyes were closed, and, after a moment, Sephiroth's fluttered shut as well. He focused on the warm breath and calloused hands, feeling at peace in Cloud's presence as the anger drained away. After a long moment Cloud pulled back. "C'mon, let's go wait with Genesis for the prognosis."

Cloud stepped back and turned towards the door, but Sephiroth hesitated. Before he could reconsider Sephiroth blurted out the question. "Did you have degradation?"

The other man looked back at him with a genuinely puzzled expression on his face. "No, why would you think that?"

"Red said you had been sick," Sephiroth said. "It must have been bad."

"It was… it wasn't degradation," Cloud said.

They stared at each other for a long moment. If it wasn't degradation then- "Did it have something to do with the Jenova virus?"

"Where did you hear that?" Cloud was rigid with shock and his voice harsh. Sephiroth hesitated a moment, puzzled at Cloud's reaction. Cloud and Red had discussed the virus like it was common knowledge, but then they both were at that lecture weren't they? Maybe it was a private lecture? But then, why would ShinRa invite Wutai?

"I don't know," Sephiroth finally said with a shrug. "The labs maybe. Did it?"

Cloud gave him a long hard look before answering. "Yes."

Sephiroth could feel his mind racing. "Am I-"

"No!" Cloud didn't quite yell, but the quick denial was backed with powerful, unrecognizable emotion. "No, you will not get sick."

"How can you be sure?" Sephiroth asked just as quickly, desperate for something more than vague reassurances.

"It was-" Cloud hesitated, obviously struggling with how to answer the question. "Jenova is usually dormant, but someone caused the virus to attack the hosts' bodies, their immune system. That is what I was sick with. It can't happen again because- because I killed the man who caused it."

That wasn't an answer Sephiroth was expecting. He was expecting something about insanity or uncontrollable mutations. "But someone else could…"

He trailed off as Cloud shook his head. "No. No one else could've done it, and I will make sure that it doesn't happen again."

"But-"

"Do you trust me?" Cloud asked softly. His expression was more open than Sephiroth had seen it since Zack's arrival. Cloud's blue eyes reflecting a sadness that Sephiroth could not understand.

"Yes, of course." Sephiroth frowned at the abrupt shift. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

Cloud stepped forward and grabbed Sephiroth's hand. His voice was low and earnest-. "Then trust me. Do not pursue this line of questioning. Do not seek out Jenova. Some truths are better left buried." He reached up to tuck a lock of hair behind Sephiroth's ear. "Please."

Sephiroth felt his mouth go dry. He was shocked by the words. They ran completely counter to everything Cloud had taught him up to this point. Was this another test? Mutely Sephiroth nodded. He didn't think it truly was one of Cloud's tests. Cloud seemed too earnest for it to be a test. But whether it was or wasn't Sephiroth clearly wasn't going to get any answers from Cloud. Cloud gave him a long searching look before stepping back.

"Okay, I'm going back downstairs to see how Angeal is doing. Are you coming?" Sephiroth nodded then shook his head.

"I'll be down in a bit," he said without explaining why or even trying to come up with a plausible lie. If Cloud could have his secrets, then so could Sephiroth. Cloud hesitated a moment, giving Sephiroth a solemn look, as if he too realized that a wall had been raised between them. However, he didn't try to break down that wall either, Cloud simply nodded, turned, and walked out, gently shutting the door behind him.

Sephiroth sat down at his desk once again and reached out and his hand. It hovered over the keyboard, as he considered replaying the disk, but was there actually anything in there that could help with what Zack did to Angeal? The things it talked about were all done years ago, he needed answers to what was happening now. Understanding what degradation was didn't give him any answers, just more questions.

He ejected the disk and tucked it away back into his locker. Cloud was right about one thing; he should be with Angeal and Genesis.

After making his way back down into Deepground, Sephiroth found that Angeal had been released from the Mako tube and was resting in one of the curtained beds. Rather, he was laying in the bed and grumbling about being there. Cloud and Genesis were standing nearby, orderlies and technicians were no longer hovering around Angeal, but he was hooked up to numerous monitors.

"Is everything okay?" Sephiroth asked, worried that he had been take out of the Mako tube. Worried that maybe he shouldn't have been put there at all. "What happened?"

"Oh, back again are we?" Genesis asked archly.

"Genesis," Angeal growled. Genesis held up his hands in surrender.

"The Mako wasn't helping," Cloud explained. "Something in the shower was not reacting well to the injection."

Something in the Mako? Jenova? "Have they figured out what was in the injection?"

"They said it was tiny machines. Nano- nanomites," Angeal said softly. "They sent a sample to Scarlet."

"They'd do better to send it to Reeve." Cloud said softly. Sephiroth frowned thoughtfully. How would Cloud know the new Director on a first name basis?

"Director Tuesti? Why?" Angeal asked looking puzzled.

"He has a degree in mechanical as well as structural engineering," Cloud explained. "And a better eye for detail then Scarlet."

Genesis rolled his eyes. "That's not saying much, have you _seen_ her new drone tanks?"

Sephiroth winced. Her 'cutting edge technology' was still a little buggy and last he heard the Infantry troops were threatening to flat out refuse an order if it meant being on the same field as one of her tanks because they were just as likely to shoot at ShinRa troopers as the enemy.

He turned to Angeal. "But you're going to be okay? You looked so sick earlier."

"Yeah." Angeal nodded. "They said that my immune system fighting the nanomites at first was what made me so sick, but I feel fine now."

"Hollander told you that?" Cloud asked sounding surprised.

Angeal shook his head. "I could hear the technicians talking about it."

"And that's it?" Genesis asked. "They aren't going to try to counter it?"

"I don't think Hollander wants to," Angeal said. "These nanomites are a cure for something, not a poison."

"Degradation?" Sephiroth asked after the uncomfortable silence stretched on too long. Cloud shot him a warning look. Angeal just nodded.

"Did they say what that was?" Genesis asked.

"No," Angeal replied softly, looking worried. "But they were so surprised the condition was… reversed that I'm pretty sure it wasn't good."

"How come we never heard about this before?" Genesis asked irritably.

"Hollander and Hojo like their secrets," Cloud said softly. He reached out and clapped Angeal's shoulder lightly. "I'm glad you're okay. If you need anything, just let me know."

It was as Cloud was walking away that Sephiroth realized that the offer was directed, not at Angeal, but at Genesis, who still suffered from degradation without even knowing it.

"You should get going as well," Angeal was saying to Genesis. "It's getting late, and they want to hold me for observation, so you're going to have to handle tomorrow's mission on your own."

"If I find out that you are using this as an excuse to cop out," Genesis threatened though it was obvious even to Sephiroth that there was no heat behind it.

"You'll be fine." Angeal smiled and shook his head. "Get a couple of Thirds to help out if you're that worried."

"I'm worried about you," Genesis growled. "I'll stop by in the morning before I leave."

They hugged roughly and clapped each other's backs as they said their goodbyes. When Genesis was gone Angeal gave Sephiroth a puzzled look. "So…"

"Do you want to get a sample to Director Tuesti?" Sephiroth blurted out.

Angeal's brow furrowed in deeper confusion, he shook his head. "I think that would be Hollan-"

"Genesis has it, too,"

"Has what?" Angeal asked, leaning slightly away from Sephiroth, clearly not trusting him.

"Degradation," Sephiroth said softly. Angeal froze with a look of shock on his face.

"H-how do you know this?" He sputtered.

Sephiroth hesitated. He couldn't explain about the WolfHaven recording, not without any discernable way that they got their hands on the information. "I may have used Hojo's computer to hack the Science Department's files."

Angeal's eye widened. "Are you insane?"

"Hojo's working on it," Sephiroth deadpanned, he wasn't sure if the attempt at humor was to distract Angeal or himself. This offer of aid was more than that, and Sephiroth felt an underlying sense of fear and uncertainty at opening himself up to the other young man. The unexpected response surprised a bark of laughter from Angeal, but he sobered quickly.

"You really think Tuesti will be able to help?"

"Cloud seems to think so," Sephiroth said with a shrug. "Besides, even if Scarlet was able to re-create the… nanomites, would you trust Genesis to them?"

"Good point," Angeal nodded. "But how are you going to talk Hollander into sending Tuesti a sample?"

"I wasn't thinking of asking his permission," Sephiroth said. He walked over the small supply cabinet for this 'room' and fished out a needle, length of rubber, and small vial. "If that's alright with you?"

Angeal hesitated but nodded. "You sure you know what you're doing?" He asked even as he held out his arm.

"One of the dubious benefits of growing up under Hojo's dubious care," Sephiroth said as he tied the rubber around Angeal's arm with a snap. "I can also administer most shots as long as the proper dosage is already calculated and I can interpret most medical charts."

"But can you read Hojo's handwriting?" Angeal said with an uneasy smile. Sephiroth assumed he was trying to use humor to cover up his unease.

"No one can read Hojo's handwriting," Sephiroth said, going along with it. "That's the point. It's ShinRa's last line of defense to keep sensitive information out of terrorists' hands." Finished with drawing Angeal's blood Sephiroth threw the used needle away in a nearby bio-hazard container and tucked the rubber tubing back in the drawer he took it out if. "I'll get this to Director Tuesti and see if we can get a second opinion on these things."

Angeal nodded. "Okay. And Sephiroth? Thanks. For caring about Genesis, I know he can be an ass sometimes, and he wasn't-"

"Angeal." Sephiroth reached out and grasped the other SOLDIER's hand. "It's okay. You'll be fine. You'll both be fine. Now, I'm going to see if I can get this to Director Tuesti's office. You get some rest, that's an order."

"You are not my commanding officer," Angeal grumbled with a half-smile.

"Then consider it advise from a friend," Sephiroth said, feeling an odd warmth as he said it and realized that he meant the words.

"That I will," Angeal said. "You do the same."

Sephiroth nodded and took his leave. Once he was in the relative privacy of the empty elevator, where the only eavesdroppers he had to worry about was the ShinSec manning the video feeds, Sephiroth fished out his PHS and scrolled through the company directory until he reached the Department of Urban Development: Director's Office. The phone rang once. There was a click as the line was transferred elsewhere, then it rang a few more times. Sephiroth waited for the voicemail to kick in, it was almost midnight and he felt more comfortable explaining himself to a machine anyways. People were confusing at the best of times and even more difficult to read with only vocal cues over the phone.

"Hello?" Sephiroth was caught off guard as a warm male voice answered the phone.

"Sorry, I was hoping to leave a message for Director Tuesti."

"That's alright, what can I help you with?"

"You can transfer me to the Director's voicemail," Sephiroth said, privately wondering if the man was an idiot.

"This is the Director." The man didn't actually laugh, but Sephiroth could practically hear the smile in his voice. Sephiroth felt his face grow hot. This was exactly why he hated talking to people without being able to see them. "Now, how may I help you?"

"I," Sephiroth hesitated, at a loss for a moment before he launched in to the message he was going to leave. "Sir, this is Captain Sephiroth, SOLDIER operative Second Class. You were referred to me by Cloud as someone familiar with mechanical engineering-"

"You said a Cloud referred you?" Tuesti interrupted him to ask.

"Yes, Major Cloud Strife, SOLDIER operative First Class," Sephiroth said. After a moment he added. "He transferred in from the WolfHaven Project several months ago."

"Hmm, doesn't ring a bell," the Director said thoughtfully. "Not that it matters. What was the problem?"

The problem, Sephiroth didn't say, was that Cloud, a man who keeps everyone at arm's length, referred familiarly to someone who doesn't know him. "A friend of mine was injected with something the Science Department has determined were tiny machines-"

"Nanomites?" Tuesti asked sounding incredulous.

"That's what they were saying," Sephiroth said.

"That's impossible!" Tuesti exclaimed. "Machines that small are purely theoretical, we don't have the technology to make the tools to make the machines. We barely have a working-"

"Would you like to see them?" Sephiroth asked, interrupting the Director only because it didn't seem like he was going to stop on his own any time soon. The line went so quiet Sephiroth had to check to make sure the connection wasn't dropped.

"You have them with you?"

"I have a sample of blood that likely contains them," Sephiroth said. "I had no way to confirm their actual presence but-"

"That's fine. I'm in my working office on the 32nd Floor. You can stop by now if you'd like," Tuesti said.

Sephiroth raised one eyebrow in surprise but dutifully punched in the button for the 32nd Floor. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Good, good. See you soon," Tuesti said, hanging up.


	13. Chapter 13

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 13

… … …

As he had predicted, it was only a few minutes later before the elevator stopped and let him out on Tuesti's floor. The floor was completely open filled with a maze of cubicles, drafting tables and massive machines that could scan or print on the large rolls of paper that engineers of all kinds seemed to prefer. The floor was mostly dark, lit by only the muddy yellow glow of Midgar's streetlights filtered through half open blinds and one office light from the far side of the open floor shining like a beacon in the gloom.

Sephiroth paused at the open door and rapped lightly on the doorframe. The room was not what he had expected of a Director's office and instead looked like any of the other cubicles out on the floor. A tilted drafting table was brightly lit from underneath. The majority of what otherwise might have been a spacious room was taken up with a large scale model of a single Sector plate. On the walls hung schematics of things Sephiroth couldn't even begin to identify. Some were framed behind protective glass while others were simply tacked to the walls. And there were sticky notes _everywhere, _even hanging from the nose of a toy cat in a crown and cape that was perched on top of the computer terminal crammed in the corner.

Director Reeve Tuesti looked just as rumpled and distracted as he did in his photo that was in the company newsletter, only with a five-o'clock shadow that blended in with a sparse goatee. A half-empty container of Wusheng takeout was held loosely in one hand, tilted at a precarious angle, while his other hand dragged a mechanical pencil across the large sheets of paper on the drafting table with strong sure lines. He was studiously oblivious to everything around him. Sephiroth pointedly cleared his throat when knocking failed to rouse the other man's attention.

Tuesti looked up and blinked owlishly at him before breaking into a wide grin. He held out one hand before sheepishly realizing that the pencil was still twined between his fingers. "Sephiroth, right? Come on in."

"Yes, Director," Sephiroth said politely as he stepped into the room.

"Just Reeve, please," Tuesti said as he set the pencil and food container down next to his computer. "So let's see this sample of yours."

Sephiroth nodded and fished out the vial of Angeal's blood. The dark burgundy liquid shimmered slightly in the harsh light of Tuesti's office. The other man took the vial and held it up to the light examining it closely.

"Is it supposed to glow like that?"

"Mako," Sephiroth said bluntly.

"Ah, and Science Department is okay with me having this?"

Sephiroth shifted uncomfortably. While they all may have worked under the same company the different Departments were fiercely competitive. The only reason that Scarlet got a sample was because Heidegger, Hojo and Scarlet were currently working together as a voting bloc against the rest of the board. In another month, or a week, that could change, and Sephiroth didn't want to trust either Angeal's or Genesis' safety to the vagaries of boardroom politics.

"I see," Tuesti said, clearly reading Sephiroth's silence.

"That's not going to be a problem is it?" Sephiroth asked, worried about how Hojo and Hollander would react to finding out that SOLDIER DNA was in someone's hand that they had not personally approved. 'Badly' didn't even begin to describe it.

"Shouldn't be," Tuesti said thoughtfully. "There's some techs down at Sector One General that owe me a few favors. I'm sure I could borrow time with some of their equipment off the books. It won't be quick though."

Sephiroth blinked; he hadn't even considered that Tuesti might not have all of the necessary equipment right on hand. "That's fine."

"And it won't be free." Tuesti leaned back and gave him a calculating look. Sephiroth kept the sudden stab of panic off of his face, but he couldn't quite hide the freeze that suddenly locked his muscles into place. He had trusted Cloud. Trusted that his recommendation of Tuesti would be good, but did he really know what he was getting into? The man was a virtual unknown before he was propelled into the directorship.

"What do you want?" Sephiroth asked coolly. He could always say no, he told himself firmly, but could he really when it was Angeal and Genesis who would potentially pay the price?

"Some monsters have taken up residence in the access tunnels in the plate," Tuesti said. "They've been destroying cables and pipes as well as attacking the maintenance crews that go down to do the repairs. I need you to get them cleared out."

Sephiroth frowned thoughtfully. That didn't sound too bad, but why as a favor? "Why don't you put in a request to the SOLDIER mission board?"

Tuesti gave a rueful smile. "I might have stepped on Heidegger's toes in the board meeting last month. He's been denying all requests from my department out of hand ever since."

That sounded like something Heidegger would do. Sephiroth couldn't say that he was entirely surprised that Tuesti had managed to step on some toes. He _would_ be surprised if Heidegger's were the only ones. Rumor had it that the reason Tuesti got the job was because he was the only qualified candidate that wasn't already in someone else's pocket, and the president picked him to keep the balance on the board in his favor. "I hope no one's been killed."

"Not yet, I've pulled back as much as I could, but we can only do so much with surface patch jobs and it's starting to show." Tuesti sighed and ran a hand through his short cropped hair looking worried.

"Send me a time table for your work crews," Sephiroth said agreeing easily. It was the type of work he would probably be doing anyway. "I'll see about getting them an escort until the tunnels are… more manageable." Cleared out completely would be wishful thinking on both of their parts, once an infestation set in most types of monsters were nearly impossible to get rid of entirely.

"I'll have it to you by tomorrow morning," Tuesti said. He held out his hand again, empty this time. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise," Sephiroth said. He clasped Tuesti's hand firmly, careful not to accidentally crush fragile bone. He had learned early how breakable the unenhanced were, but would still forget at the most inopportune times. Tuesti's hands were warm, the skin was soft and unmarred by scars or calluses, but was stronger than Sephiroth had expected from an office worker. He like to think that it was a sign that boded well for the man's strength of character. "I'll look forward to hearing from you, Director."

"Please, just Reeve," Tuesti said with a small smile. They said their goodbyes and parted ways, with Sephiroth heading back to the elevators and eventually to his bunk.

True to his word Tuesti sent the time tables first thing the next morning, at oh-dark hundred hours. Sephiroth grabbed his beeping PHS from the top of his locker that also served as a nightstand and flipped it open. He blinked blearily at the email and wondered if the other man had slept at all.

The email included not only the time tables but maps and blurry incomplete scans of the monsters seen in the area. Sephiroth could only conclude after scanning through the compiled information that Tuesti didn't sleep, and apparently didn't think Sephiroth should either. The 'escort missions' were scheduled off the clock on the weekends and evenings, so Sephiroth could still do his ShinRa sanctioned missions and training. Not his training with Cloud though. That was off the clock as well, and with Tuesti's schedule there was no time left on his off days, starting today.

Sephiroth groaned and flipped the PHS shut. He barely had an hour to get himself together and get breakfast before the first UD mission to Sector Five. He took a fast shower, careful not to get his hair wet or he would end up spending forever drying it. Once he was dressed he considered his options for food. The civilian cafeteria had the best breakfast but was closed on weekends. The officer's mess only served a continental breakfast this early in the morning, and doughnuts with cold coffee were not going to cut it. The general mess it was.

The general mess served the bulk of ShinRa's grunts, infantry and police squads mingled under an unsteady truce that could be broken at any time, resulting in a brawl that would demolish half of the tables. Again. It was too early in the morning for hostilities, though the hall was serving a steady flow of troopers both coming on and off their shifts. Food choice was limited to how much sugar you wanted in your coffee, and you ate what they slapped on your tray. Today it was some unidentifiable grain mash with milk and sugar, fatty pieces of bacon, eggs and dry toast.

Sephiroth had downed half of his coffee and was contemplating his food while waiting for the caffeine to kick in when someone started talking at him. He glanced up to find an infantry man standing in front of him dressed in blue BDUs. The concealing helmet was tucked under one arm, letting Sephiroth get a good look at the man's dark blond hair and muddy green eyes.

"Still not a morning person I see," he said with a small smile. The voice sounded familiar even if the man was unrecognizable. He glanced at the man's insignia.

"Corporal Marsden. The Mythril Mine mission," Sephiroth said with a polite nod. "I thought you were stationed in Junon."

The corporal seemed to take that as an invitation and sat down. "I was transferred in to the Fifth last week. I must say I'm surprised to see you here. I didn't think that you had any missions scheduled except that solo next Tuesday."

Sephiroth unconsciously bristled a bit. "Keeping track of my schedule?"

"Of course." The other man said with a smile, not seeming to note Sephiroth's tone. "SOLDIER Support, it pays to keep track of who's doing what."

"Hn," Sephiroth grunted, he really was tired if his brain wasn't making the connection. The Fifth Division was the pool of infantry that SOLDIER drew on when the mission required back up or cover fire.

"Now, I happen to know that you are supposed to be off today. Yet here you are obviously preparing for a mission, which causes me to wonder 'what's going on?' So, what's going on?"

Sephiroth eyes the man suspiciously, but he couldn't figure out the man's angle. After a moment of silent debate he have a mental shrug and answered the question honestly. "Favor for the Department of Urban Development. Heidegger is nixing any mission requests they put in, and their maintenance crews can't get into the tunnels to do their work. So I volunteered to escort them until the tunnels can get cleared."

"No, shit?" Marsden's eyes got wide. "Heidegger's an ass. Who've you got for support?"

"No one," Sephiroth said. He initially wanted to call Cloud. However, he quickly realized that if he did he would never change Cloud's view of him. Until he could prove that he was good enough, strong enough, to bear the weight of whatever terrible secret Cloud was hiding, he would keep working at improving himself. He wasn't going to prove anything if he kept letting Cloud and Hojo call the shots on his missions. He had to stand on his own two feet. "Can't get support for a mission that's off the record."

"No I suppose you wouldn't. Where are you going?"

"Sector Five," Sephiroth said. "Apparently there's a colony of Hedgehog Pies that have been chewing on the cables."

"Is that what's causing the rolling brown-out's I've heard about?" asked a new voice. Sephiroth looked over to see a trooper from a nearby table leaning back at a dangerous angle, turned towards them.

"Brown-outs?" Sephiroth asked.

The trooper nodded. "My sister lives in Sector Five. She said the lights dim and some of the more high-energy appliance go down for hours, or even days, at a time, but it doesn't shut off completely. ShinRa's been saying it was due the summer heat expanding faulty connections." He waved one hand vaguely. "Sounds like bullshit to me, and I told her so."

"I don't know if that's what they will be working on," Sephiroth said, the itinerary Tuesti gave him only said where they were going, not what they were doing.

"So, how many civilians will you be riding herd on?" Marsden asked.

"Seven, I think," Sephiroth said hesitantly. He was a little uncomfortable at the questions and scrutiny. He wasn't used to interacting with people outside of the field with a clear chain of command to dictate proper protocols. He felt a little lost, but at least the topic was close enough to a real mission to be somewhat familiar. "Yes, seven."

"By yourself?" The trooper from the other table asked. Apparently he had been eavesdropping since the conversation started.

"Never happen," Marsden said as he shook his head. "I'd offer to help but I'm already scheduled for a run out east. Some critter going after the chocobos."

"I know a couple of guys that are off today who would jump at the chance to rack up some field experience," the other trooper said, then at Sephiroth's expressionless look reconsidered. "Uh, that is if you want back up. Your call, man."

Sephiroth considered it. The few escort missions he had been on before were mostly parade show-of-force with no real expectation of danger for the parties involved. This mission was going to be something else entirely. "I would not be adverse to assistance."

"Okay, when are you heading out?"

Sephiroth checked his PHS. "Service Entrance Four in twenty minutes."

"Not with UD techs," Marsden said with a serious expression. "They exist in their own time system, which I will swear is incomprehensible to human logic. You gotta give them _at least _another hour."

The other trooper laughed as he and the other men at his table stood up. "I'll get the word out. Tell them to go straight there. Whoever shows; shows."

"Thanks." Sephiroth said. He was still a little stunned at the unasked and unlooked for aid. Not that anyone had actually volunteered yet, but Sephiroth didn't think that would be a problem. There will always be some people looking to get a little more experience, or push themselves a little further.

Marsden took his leave as well, off to his own mission. Left alone once again Sephiroth quickly finished his breakfast, regardless of what the troopers seemed to expect of the techs, he didn't want to be late. It wouldn't due to give a poor impression to Tuesti of Sephiroth's professionalism.

When Sephiroth got to the loading dock he found that Marsden seemed to be right about the techs. They were nowhere near ready to go. First of all there were only three of them, and they were busy loading a pile of cables, tools and other equipment that Sephiroth couldn't even begin to identify into the back of a large white van with the ShinRa logo on the side and also the words 'Department of Urban Development.' Standing nearby was a ShinRa Security man in Dress Reds who saluted as Sephiroth approached.

Sephiroth returned the salute and they both dropped to stand at ease, measuring each other up. The man had obviously been called about the volunteer mission, he had forgone the red double-breasted trench coat entirely, wearing only the red pants with the white dress shirt, and swapped out his bayonet and cap for the SSI machine gun and an optics enhancing helmet that was more appropriate for BDUs.

"You just coming off shift?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yes, sir."

"You going to be up to another full shift on high alert?"

The man paused to consider it, which made Sephiroth feel better that he was taking this mission seriously. "I think I'll be fine, sir."

"Yeah, that's because ShinSec just sleep on the job," a voice said from behind Sephiroth. He turned to see that three troopers from the Fifth Division had joined them. Sephiroth frowned as the three young men in blue BDUs drew close and threw a cocky half salute, dropping into a lazy slouch before waiting for him to acknowledge their presence.

"Apologize," Sephiroth demanded. If he was going to have men from across different divisions, the last thing he needed was petty squabbling breaking out while in the middle of the monster infested tunnels that threaded through the inner workings of the plates.

"Ah, hey man, we were just joking," the middle one, the one who had spoken, said as he held up his hands in a placating gesture. Sephiroth could feel his control of the situation slipping. Unlike in a formal mission he could easily lose command to someone more charismatic. Since the mission was strictly volunteer, they technically were not bound by the traditional chain of command.

"Stand at attention," he snarled. He wasn't even trying for Cloud's quiet menace, but the effect was striking none-the-less. All four men snapped to attention, even the ShinSec guy. The three Fifths had a slightly panicked expression that was suitably gratifying. "I will not tolerate any intra-departmental pissing contests. You all volunteered to take this mission. I don't care what you were doing yesterday or who you have to suck up to tomorrow. Right now you are a part of this unit, and you will act like it or your ass is mine. Now, apologize, and sound like you mean it."

"Sir! Yes, sir!" They said voices sharp and loud in the quiet loading dock. Some things about basic you never escaped. If he was to do this in true basic style he probably should have added something about them being pathetic sacks of shit, but that would probably have been a little too much. However, when they it came to the apology they paused clearly stymied by the demand. Finally one of the Fifths, not the one who made the comment, stammered out a weak 'sorry.'

"Repeat," Sephiroth snapped. "'I am sorry. I regret saying that the ShinRa Security First Division is anything less than professional and competent."

The three young men dutifully repeated the apology, though the one who started it glared resentfully at Sephiroth as he said. That one was going to be trouble. Sephiroth wondered if he should just turn the young man away now before he caused problems out in the field. However, he could use the help and most troopers knew better then to cause trouble in the field. Not if they wanted to keep their life, limb and job.

Mentally deciding to shelve the decision, he turned to the ShinSec trooper. "Apology accepted?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," the trooper said.

"That was well done." Three more had arrived while he was dealing with the troopers. Two were in blue BDUs and stamped with the Seventh Division, Midgar Police. The third was a young lady with dark hair cut severely short. She was dressed in worn jeans and a sweatshirt with the word 'POLICE' stenciled across her chest. Even in civvies she was armed with a standard machine gun and the helmet was swinging from a clip hooked to a belt loop. The uniformed man brining up the rear was middle-aged, which was surprising considering how ShinRa recruited them young and used them hard. He was still fit but spreading out a bit at the waist. After catching a glance at the man's rank, Sephiroth paled and snapped to attention.

"Colonel." It was one thing to acknowledge that the volunteer mission made rank a little more fluid then usual when he was the one dealing with the insubordination, not the one _doing _it. And to make matters worse the colonel was an MP. In comparison to the MP-SOLDIER rivalry the long-standing feud between ShinSec and the Infantry divisions were like the drunken flailing of a chocobo high on fermented greens; generally harmless, occasionally funny, and most of the damage was relatively limited. The MPs, though, have held a grudge against SOLDIER practically from its inception and the resulting flare ups of vitriolic resentment and aggression were rarely amusing. One screw up with these three and this entire "mission" could go down in flames. "Can I help you, sir?"

"At ease, Captain. We're here for the volunteer job. I have no intention of taking over the mission. You are the acting commander here," the Colonel said. "But, I'll be honest; I don't like SOLDIER acting outside of mission parameters on my turf. You step one toe out of line and I am going to write you up to Heidegger faster than you can say 'decommissioned.' You got that."

"Yes, sir." Sephiroth said. He tried not to bristle at the assumptions and focus on the task at hand. He glanced back to the techs, there were a few more of them, and it looked like they had almost all of the equipment loaded onto the truck. Sephiroth turned back to his unlikely crew. It was not a bad turn out. He could have used a couple more, but the seven who showed would be enough. "Have any of you worked together before?"

Two of the Fifths raised their hands; neither of them the loudmouth who insulted the ShinSec guy earlier. The Colonel waved at the other MPs. "These two are both from my precinct."

"Have any of you ever worked an escort mission?" The same two Fifths raised their hands and so did all three of the MPs. "Under fire?"

The Fifths and the uniformed patrolman dropped their hands. The Colonel kept his hand up along with the young woman. Sephiroth raised his eyebrow in surprise. He would have expected the SOLDIER Support troops to have more experience with escort missions in hostile territory considering that much of the support trooper's jobs were to successfully get the SOLDIER to his target.

"What-"

"Ha-loo, thar!" an obnoxiously loud and cheerfully boisterous voice interrupted him. Sephiroth nearly jumped out of his skin at the unexpected greeting. Looking around he didn't locate the speaker at first, until he finally fixed his gaze on a small cat standing on two feet and waving at him. It took Sephiroth a moment to remember that he had seen the thing before.

"You are the toy that was in Tuesti's office," he said. On one the one hand he was slightly startled to find himself speaking to a cat. On the other, it didn't have nearly the fangs on it that Red did.

"I am _not_ a toy." The little cat drew itself up in the image of affronted dignity, marred only by the ubiquitously cheerful expression on its face. "I am Cait Sith. King of the Cats, Magician Extraordinaire, and-" The cat paused dramatically. Sephiroth crossed his arms and stared down at the little cat, he was not going to give it the prompt it was clearly looking for. "And fortune teller of no small skill. Would you like your fortune read?"

"No," Sephiroth said flatly.

"Tch. Ah, well. Your loss," Cait Sith sighed dramatically. "Down to business then. I am here as Reeve's representative. He's looking for a firsthand account of what we find and has given me a Mastered Sense Materia to get a sense of the little beasties that have been causing all this trouble."

"I see," Sephiroth said.

"That won't be a problem, will it Captain?"

At the very least the Sense Materia will be useful. "If that's what the Director wants, does it really matter?"

The cat took on a 'thinking' pose with head cocked to one side as it tapped it chin with one white gloved finger before finally answering. "Nope, not one mite."

"Very well, then. If you will excuse me I need to finish briefing my troops." Sephiroth didn't wait for a response. He turned back to his assortment of troopers, all of whom were staring at the little cat. "Now then, Colonel, you indicated you had experience with escort missions under fire?"

"Y-yeah," The Colonel stammered as he tore his attention away from Cait Sith. He took a steadying breath. "Yes. A few years ago we were escorting the Hollow Wells leader to trial when some of his followers attacked the convoy in an attempt to release him."

Sephiroth had no idea what the man was talking about but he nodded like he did. Hojo had never encouraged a focus on current events in his studies. It was only recently that he had exposure to the news and anything other than military history from over fifty years ago. "I see, thank you. Have any of you had experience with Restore Materia?"

All three Fifths raised their hands but none of the others. Which made sense, the Infantry was the only branch that rotated medic duties. Sephiroth carefully considered the best deployment of the men he had available. Protocol would dictate that they needed a forward and rear guard. Territory was likely very hostile so he would need to have most of their man power on point. With the civilians between them, however, that would leave the non-combatants uncomfortably close to the fighting if anything broke through. Decision made Sephiroth turned to the Colonel.

"I would like you to take command on the forward guard while Ms-" Sephiroth trailed off and turned to the young woman. Placing the MPs in charge of the main guard would hopefully mollify the Colonel's worries. If the man was looking to make trouble for Sephiroth, there was little he could do about, but if the man was genuinely concerned, having a measure of control over the mission would go a long way.

"Corporal Davies," she said, her voice strong and more than a little aggressive, not uncommon for women in the still primarily male dominated military.

"Corporal Davies takes lead on the rear." Sephiroth paused and both MP saluted with a sharp 'sir.' Sephiroth pulled off his bracer with the Restore-All pair and tossed it to the loudmouth Fifth. "You're medic, on the forward guard but stay to the back ranks. You two are with me on advance scout."

Not the prime position for the commander, as Cloud as reminded him, but unlike the situation with the Midgar Zolom it really was the best use of his abilities to clear a path as much as they could for the team following behind, and given that they had another officer it was the best division of their resources. This way the front guard would only have to worry about things that might slip through after him, and it was safest course of action for the civilians, which was the primary purpose of the mission. He assigned the ShinSec to the rear with Davies and the loudmouth to the forward, it was probably best to keep those two apart. PHSs were set, and Sephiroth forwarded everyone the route map and the blurry scans.

"We will be entering at the maintenance shaft here, and make our way to point A. When the advance team has secured the area, we will alert you to bring the civilians through. You are to maintain a perimeter while the techs work on their tasks, and the advance team will move on to the next point. This is a structural map of the tunnels, and while there have been no known changes to the layout no one has been down there in a while, so it is possible that our information is out of date. We have confirmed sightings of hedgehog pies and also unverified reports of an unknown dragonet-like lizard. Any questions?"

There was a chorus of 'No, sirs' from everyone. Sephiroth nodded. "Now, I believe that the UD will be providing our transport, load up. I want to be ready to go before they are."

Cait Sith was more than happy to lead them to their vehicle, an additional windowless white van with two parallel benches in the back facing each other and an overhead bar to hold on to while standing. Sephiroth took his seat in the front passenger-side with Ashura upright in front of him, and Cait Sith perched on the head rest behind him. The troopers arranged themselves in the bench seats, the Colonel taking the first spot behind the driver. They were quiet for the most part; no one wanted to draw attention to themselves. Fortunately, no one's patience was truly tested. Their driver arrived a few minutes later. A pimply faced young man barely older then some of the recruits out of basic.

The boy flashed Sephiroth an uncomfortable smile and, much to Sephiroth's relief, didn't try to engage in any small talk. The troopers in the back gradually got either more comfortable, or more nervous it was difficult to tell, and bantered back and forth a bit. Although there was no gossip or hurtful speculation about Sephiroth this time, just ribald jokes, insults, and threats of violence from Davies if she even thought that one of them was staring at her breasts.

The ride to their destination was brief. They stopped at an unremarkable intersection. Even the streets were designated by number and direction rather than name. The techs set up bright yellow construction barriers, though there was no traffic to direct around them at this early hour of the morning. They began unloading the equipment that they had previously loaded and laid it out in haphazard piles that Sephiroth hoped made more sense to them than it did to him. The troopers checked their guns and ammunition.

One of the techs pulled out a long thin pole with a crook at the end. Too thin to be a weapon Sephiroth watched as the man hooked the end into a small notch in a manhole cover in the ground and with a deft twist and pull slit the large metal cover to the side. When the tech started to go down in to the maintenance tunnel without a word to anyone Sephiroth was at his side in a few strides, grabbing the man by the arm and roughly pulling him up out of the hole.

"What the hell are you doing? Let me go?" The man swore and struggled in his grip, but Sephiroth held firm and set him on his feet, though the man fell to the ground and scrambled away as fast as possible. The other tech paused in their work and stopped to stare at the commotion. "What the hell was that for?"

"What did you think you were doing?" Sephiroth asked, infusing his voice with the cold menace that had worked so well to get the troopers attention earlier.

"Going down to check the condition of the tunnels," he said sounding incredulous that he had to explain himself. "We have to start-"

"No," Sephiroth cut him off. "We go first. Only after we give you the all clear can you follow."

"But-"

"Let them do their jobs, Bill," Cait Sith said, patting the man's shoulder. "That's what they're here for."

Satisfied that the idiot wasn't going to get himself burned to a crisp, Sephiroth waved the two Fifths that he placed in the advance scouting team forward. "Keep your helmets set to night vision. Don't turn on any lights, we don't want to scare off the more skittish ones. Do this once and do it right"

"Will you be able to see without a helmet, sir?" The one asked.

"I'll be fine," Sephiroth said as he lowered himself into the hole, carefully shifting Ashura so that she didn't get caught on the concrete bricks lining the curved wall. Fact was, after he got accustomed to not having the PHS information accesses in front of himself at all times, his vision was better, he could see farther and clearer then the even the sensors on the SOLDIER issue helmets. After asking around he found that this was true with most SOLDIERs, but many kept the helmets because apparently they couldn't adjust quickly to sudden high light saturation, something that Sephiroth had no problems with. He suspected that it was due to the cat-slit shape of his iris. He wondered if Cloud had the same problem but hadn't gotten around to asking yet.

Reaching the bottom of the narrow rung ladder, Sephiroth found himself in ankle deep water. The tunnel was relatively large, wide enough for three men abreast and high enough that Sephiroth could stand up straight. It was a radial line that extended from the ShinRa building. To get to their destination they would need to go rimwards to the next junction and following some twisting side tunnels. The light from above was briefly blocked as the next man started down the ladder. Sephiroth pulled out his PHS and radioed the Colonel topside. "Ask one of the techs if there's supposed to be water down here."

By the swearing after the Colonel repeated the question, Sephiroth would hazard that the answer was 'no.'

"Doesn't smell like sewage, probably got a leak in one of the fresh water pipes," one of the techs called down from the top of the ladder. "How deep is it?"

With a sigh of frustration Sephiroth snapped his PHS shut. That just killed their secondary objective of trying to cull back some of the infestation. The racket must have scared off all but the most vicious. "About three inches."

"Ah, fuck," trooper said as he landed with a splash at the base of the ladder.

"Okay, good. That's not deep enough to cross any potential electrical wires. We'll need to get the source located and sealed as quickly as possible."

"Are we deviating from the planned itinerary?" Sephiroth called up. He would need to rearrange the Parties if they were going hunting for an leak originating from Odin only knows where. The light dimmed once again as his second trooper started down the ladder. There was a long silence from above. Long enough for the trooper to reach the bottom and step down with a bit more grace then his partner.

"No, we keep to the plan, but everyone keeps an eye out for likely sources."

"Confirm that," Sephiroth turned to head towards the ShinRa building. "We'll clear the field to the next juncture then head back rimwards that will give them some breathing space."

He had gone about five paced when Cait Sith's cheerful voice hailed them from behind. "Yoohoo, Sephy!"

Sephiroth could feel his teeth grind. He seriously considered leaving Tuesti's little toy behind, but that Sense Materia would be really useful if there really was an unknown monster somewhere in the tunnels. He kept telling himself that as he slogged back through the water to face the little cat clinging the bottom rungs. "What?"

The cat actually managed to look a little cowed. "Um, there's water."

"And?"

"And I'm a cat."

Sephiroth waited for that to make some sense. It didn't. "And?"

"And water and cats don't mix?"

"Right," Sephiroth sighed through his nose. He picked the cat up by its head and carried the thing squawking and protesting a few steps before dumping on one of the trooper's shoulders as he passed the man. This was going to be a long day.


	14. Chapter 14

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 14

… … …

A long day didn't even begin to describe it. Sephiroth grumbled unhappily to himself as he finally reached the safety of his bunk. At least Cait Sith had been marginally competent, which was more than could be said for two blundering idiots he had for support and the less said about the UD techs the better. They didn't find the leak, or even an idea of where to start looking, they barely even finished half of the work that Tuesti has expected, because one of the techs wandered off _by himself_ to take a piss and stumbled into one of the unknowns that have been rumored.

They now knew that the small dragon-like monsters spit acid could eat through cloth and skin and probably a few other things as well. Oh, the idiot was okay, he may have been a civilian but there was nothing wrong with his flight instincts, and he didn't sustain any more damage than a light Cure could take care off. What annoyed Sephiroth about the whole thing was the hysterical breakdown after the fact. They all had to trudge back to the nearest access point, which happened to be the same one they entered through, and they had to wait around for his replacement to arrive while ambulance technicians from a nearby clinic hovered over the man. _Civilians._ He was fine. Loudmouth may not know when to keep his mouth shut, but he knew when to cast a Cure.

And they didn't get a scan on the thing. So they still had no idea what it was they were dealing with. However, judging by the eroded metal and stone that acid could wear through stronger materials if given enough time.

While he had been in the tunnels Sephiroth had turned off the phone capabilities of his PHS to keep from being distracted while in battle. There were plenty more people who were interested than who could make it to the mission start this morning and messages were left by volunteers inquiring about future missions. There was one text that he kept going back to over and over.

_Heard about your work for UD. Good job. ~Cloud_

Just seeing that small note of approval filled Sephiroth with a heady sense of pride and accomplishment. He'd read and re-read the thing half a dozen times since he got it. He wasn't sure what this meant about where he stood with Cloud, the other man still wouldn't share his secrets, his burdens, but at least Cloud wasn't avoiding him anymore.

As his luck would have it, that didn't count for much. Between ShinRa and Tuesti, Sephiroth was pretty much run ragged and he didn't have the time to seek out his erstwhile mentor. The volunteers were a help with Tuesti's missions allowing a full escort for the UD techs or anyone else that Tuesti decided needed to be sent in the tunnels and Sephiroth was also able to schedule pure hunting missions to try and make some headway on clearing out the monsters. On the other hand, as soon as Tuesti found out about the volunteers, which was almost immediately, he began to schedule full work teams for first _and_ second shifts regardless of Sephiroth's schedule, figuring that he would be able to assign volunteers even if he was unable to join them himself.

Sephiroth had learned more about logistics and the disposition of troops since this campaign started then he ever had in officer training. The real problem was supplies. Since many of the troops relied on the weapons and Materia supplied by ShinRa rather than investing in their own, it meant that Sephiroth and Tuesti had to come up with the funds for ammunition, potions, and ethers enough to meet even the minimum requirements for a safe venture into dangerous territory.

Many, including Sephiroth, had been genuinely surprised to hear how badly strapped for cash the Department of Urban Development really was. For all that building and maintaining the plate that supported the soaring high rises of the upper city had been ShinRa's focus for longer than most people could remember, the current President Shinra didn't seem to care much for the city and often would divert funds from UD to more popular programs like Palmer's budding space race. (Who he was racing no one had a clue, but many of the ShinRa directors could be described as eccentric at best and batshit crazy at worst so no one asked either.) The funding for the campaign came mostly out of Tuesti's pocket. The Department may have been strapped but ShinRa paid its Directors well.

Sephiroth dutifully rationed out their Materia and their potions and making sure that every team had at least two Phoenix Down just in case. The small plastic slips holding a delicate jewel-like feather, cost more than the average trooper could readily afford, but both he and Tuesti agreed that it was worth the expense. Not all of their volunteer troopers were please by the decision. Originally bounty and spoils were shared between the volunteers on the mission, but after the first one that truly went south they started pooling the spoils for additional supplies and divvying up the remains after. Not that there was much to get from Hedgehog Pie, and the dragonets were surprisingly scarce for all of the apparent damage to the plate interior.

There was some jockeying as people came and left within the first month. Things eventually settled down into a core company of sixty troops that came from all across the spectrum from SOLDIER to MedCorps and MPs to ShinSec. Surprisingly, Loudmouth- Dawson was one of the ones who stayed. The colonel wasn't. Once he saw the seriousness of the situation he gave Sephiroth the green light to do whatever he needed, and tagged Sephiroth into the MPs Dispatch Office for emergency back-up. The gesture meant more than a safety net to Sephiroth's volunteers, his men. It was an acknowledgement from one commander to another.

It was something he was coming to see more and more in the halls of ShinRa Headquarters. Though Sephiroth ran through his work days like normal with ShinRa assigned training, missions and the like, his men would react as they saw him. Stand up straighter, salute more sharply, and others that Sephiroth hadn't worked with were starting to notice. At first, he felt a little self-conscious of the attention. It was different then what he was used to. It wasn't until seeing another company running drills that he realized the difference. He was being treated with honest, earned respect, not stared at in fear as Hojo's little pet. The knowledge was intoxicating, and sobering. As quickly as this regard had been gained, how quickly could it be lost once more?

Troubling thoughts continued to haunt him as, towards the beginning of the second month, one of his hunting Parties came across a clutch of the dragonet-creatures nesting in a hollow melted from the concrete and rebar wall and they landed a solid scan on one. The information was forwarded en masse to everyone on the volunteer company net.

It was worse than they were expecting: Gongagan Gold Dragons. Sephiroth berated himself for not realizing that it was something imported from Gongaga as soon as it spat acid at the UD tech back on day one. Those jungles had more weird and poisonous plants, animals and monsters per square mile than anywhere else on the planet. Their working theory was that someone had brought them as exotic pets, but they ate through the cage and escaped. Sephiroth thought that it was likely Hojo that brought them over in his quest for perfecting the SOLDIER formula, but then again, he was willing to blame Hojo for anything.

One of the volunteer MPs was working his way through university talked his way into the Biology Department. One of the TAs was able to extrapolate, from the size and age of the hatchlings they had encountered and the extent of the damage, that they had at least one breeding pair that had holed up somewhere for the past couple of seasons. Given another year and the dragonets would be large enough and hungry enough, after they wiped out the resident monsters and rats, to venture outside of the plate's interior. Their expert was also able to determine some likely places to look, primarily the waste heat vents from the reactors, where warmth and humidity were likely to pool.

Sephiroth quickly formed up a team of the best he had among the volunteers and scheduled a sweep of the designated areas. There would be no civilians to worry about so he could keep it down to a single party, the best for quick movement through the tight tunnels. He settled on a five man team consisting of himself and one other SOLDIER, a Third class who was built like a tank and hit like one too, a combat medic from one of the infantry divisions and two troopers from the Fifth armed with guns and the only decent offensive weapons-grade Materia they had. And Cait Sith who insisted on going. The plan was for the dragons to focus on the SOLDIERs while the medic kept them going and the troopers hit from a distance. Of course, no plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy.

… … …

"The medic's doun!" Cait Sith announced the obvious in a slightly panicked voice as a _third_ dragon pounced on them from behind while the two SOLDIERs had been focused on the breeding pair they found lodged behind the Sector Five Reactor's waste vent.

"Focus on the first two, I'll take this one," Sephiroth ordered the rest as he turned to face the third dragon. The scales flashed, catching and reflecting what little light there was to be found in the dark tunnels. "Cat, get the man back on his feet."

"Yes, sir!" Cait Sith saluted incorrectly and scampered over to the fallen man. "Um, I think he's dead, Seph."

Sephiroth swiped at the hissing dragon, managing a few glancing blows. "He should be carrying the Phoenix Down."

"Ah, right!"

The dragon reared back, preparing his acid attack. Sephiroth lunged forward, Ashura's tip leading the way. The Armor Pierce Materia flashed a with a soft rose-colored light, and Ashura slid through the armored scales as if they were nothing, cutting deep into the creature's gullet.

Sephiroth heard a soft hiss before the dragon curled in on itself. He pulled Ashura free with a sharp tug. What came back was not the length of bloodied steel he was expecting, but a much diminished piece pitted, scarred and twisted. As he watched the remaining length crumbled and fell away from the hilt. The blow must have pierced the chemical sacs combining them prematurely, killing the dragon, but destroying the blade in the process.

"Seph! Need some help over here!" Sephiroth's grip tightened on the hilt, the small charm shivered and metal whispered against metal. He turned away from the writhing creature, it was as good as dead with its own acid eating away at it from the inside out. He made his way to Cait Sith over the bones of dragonets and other creatures. The Gold Dragons were their own predators, larger ones catching and eating the smaller ones. It was the only reason that the city hadn't been overrun yet.

"How's he doing?"

"Not good, I can't find the Phoenix Down," Cait Sith said, pawing ineffectually through the many pouches and pockets that were part of the standard BDUs. Sephiroth calmly reached down and pulled out a small plastic slip containing a single jewel-like feather from the medic's front pocket. He peeled apart the thin film and placed the soft downy feather on the man's chest. It glowed softly before crumbling to ash and the medic took a sharp breath, like being startled awake from a deep sleep. Sephiroth released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, there was always a chance that the magic wouldn't work and even if it did there were still the wounds and hurts to be dealt with.

"Heal yourself then take up your previous position," Sephiroth ordered. He surveyed the rest of the party, they weren't doing well. "Give me your sword."

The man fumbled a moment before handing Sephiroth his ShinRa standard issue Broadsword. The thing didn't even have any slots for Materia. Not sure what else to do with the remnants of the odachi Sephiroth snapped off the corroded end so that all that was left of Ashura was only the clean metal and hilt. He tucked it into his boot sheath where many SOLDIERs carried a reserve knife that he had never bothered with.

He rejoined the battle, taking up his previous place in the battle formation. It wasn't quick or easy work, whatever serendipity that allowed him to fell the other dragon so easily failed him now, but they eventually brought both of the monsters down with no other major losses. After the fight Sephiroth took a moment to mournfully trace his hands over Ashura's broken remains. What was he going to tell Cloud?

… … …

Cloud may have no longer been actively avoiding Sephiroth, but Cloud didn't seek him out either. So it was simple enough to avoid him until Sephiroth could figure out what to say. As the days passed Sephiroth realized that he would never find the right words to say. There were no right words for destroying such a gift. Ashura had been so much more than a simple sword. She had been a promise, the perfect weapon for Sephiroth's hands to become the perfect weapon.

Was the promise as broken as the sword? Sephiroth was afraid of the answer, that the promise had been broken long before the sword. Or worse, that it had never been in the first place. He was afraid. Sephiroth did what he always did when he was afraid, attacked it head on until there was no longer anything left to fear.

Pulling out his PHS, Sephiroth hesitated a moment before firmly pushing the call button. The PHS rang for a long time. Sephiroth was expecting it to go to voicemail and was surprised when the call was picked up with a soft greeting. "Hello?"

"Cloud? It's Sephiroth. Sorry I haven't been in contact lately. I've been busy," Sephiroth said. He winced and hoped that he didn't sound as stupid to Cloud as he did to himself.

"With the UD project? I'm sure." Cloud said.

"Did you speak with Tuesti?"

"No," Cloud said.

"Oh." Sephiroth frowned momentarily distracted from his primary concern. If Tuesti hadn't spoken with Cloud maybe there really wasn't a connection between them. "Well, I'm done for today and I was wondering if you wanted to-" Sephiroth trailed off unsure of how he wanted to finish that. After Cloud's tentative attempt at reconciliation what could he safely ask for? He wanted to talk, but was that all he really wanted? A dull ache in his chest, reminded him that no, he wanted to see Cloud for more reasons than just to talk. He cleared his throat and tried again. "It's just that I don't know when I'll have some free time again and I wanted to see if we could get together."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line before Cloud finally spoke. "Book us a training room." Then the line went dead.

Sephiroth grimaced. He was sure that this wasn't the best way to go about telling Cloud about what happened to Ashura, but starting off with 'I have some bad news' made it sound like someone died.

It didn't take him long to make his way to the 49th Floor, pick up a spare broadsword, and sign up for one of the training rooms. Less than ten minutes later Cloud entered the control booth where Sephiroth scanned through the scenarios to keep from pacing.

Sephiroth took a moment to study Cloud unobtrusively from beneath lowered lashes. Cloud looked stressed, in that every motion was perfectly controlled. Even his expression didn't betray any hint of emotion. Sephiroth felt himself tense unconsciously unable to stop the fear the Cloud was starting to distance himself again. The action didn't go unnoticed, his head slightly to the side as examined Sephiroth in turn.

"Did you have anything in particular in mind?" Cloud asked, starting to relax slightly. He glanced at the hilt over Sephiroth's shoulder and though Cloud's eyes tightened in a small frown, he didn't say anything.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something," Sephiroth said. He pulled the broken sword from his boot where he had carried it since it was destroyed. Cloud took the hilt and turned it over in his hands, the silver feather charm still tied to it jangled in protest. In halting, hesitant words Sephiroth explained what had happened. Cloud handed Ashura back to Sephiroth.

"She did her job. What happened wasn't your fault. You shouldn't blame yourself," Cloud said. The soft words were the absolution that Sephiroth hadn't realized that he was looking for a weight was lifted off of his shoulder. "You know, the Wusheng will sometimes have a funeral and bury a weapon that is broken beyond repair like for a warrior that has died."

Sephiroth glanced down at the delicately carved hilt that it was in his hands. She hadn't been with him long, but she had been such an important part of him since the sword had been placed in his hands. It didn't feel right to just throw her away like he had so many other tools when broken. A formal burial seemed fitting. "Thanks, I think I would like that."

Cloud nodded and gestured at the console Sephiroth was at. "Did you have a particular module in mind?"

"You suggested that we book the training room. Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud shrugged. "There was one I was working on for us before Icicle Inn-"

"We can do that then," Sephiroth said. He didn't really care what they did. Cloud gave him a measured look.

"Go on inside," he said. "I'll set it up."

Sephiroth nodded, tucked Ashura's hilt back into his boot, and entered the training room. After a few moments grey steel walls lit up with a grid work of light that shifted around him, billowing out in some areas and receding into the far distance in others. Then the color started filling in grey stone, warm wood and blue, blue sky.

He stood in the empty remains of an old church. He couldn't say which deity the church had been dedicated to possibly Lord Ramuh, the Sage of Storms, or Odin the All Father. Both had once had been popular in this area long before ShinRa and Midgar but any defining statues or stained glass pictures in the tall windows were long since gone. Along with half the ceiling and a portion of the wood floor that had given way to reveal a wide spring of clear water. At the bottom of the pool Sephiroth could see flowers, some kind of water lilies blooming white and yellow and swaying with the lazy current.

The hiss of the training room door, sounding out of place in the serene peace of the abandoned church, announced Cloud's arrival. Sephiroth turned to find Cloud standing the church's wide center aisle, backlit by the harsh fluorescent light behind him. The door slid shut closing off any hint of the ShinRa building outside this world constructed with magic and technology.

"It's a beautiful place," Sephiroth said. Most of the training sims were echoes of real places to impart a familiarity of the locale as well as the experience with the monsters, though a few were creations of places that had never or could never be. Cloud's soft agreement gave Sephiroth no insight as to which this place was.

"It's not complete, but there's enough to give us a good run," Cloud said. He motioned Sephiroth to follow him outside the church's heavy doors. Sephiroth felt his breath taken away at the stark devastation outside the stone walls.

The silence here was not the comforting peace he had felt inside the church but that of an echoing wasteland devoid of life. Around him stretched miles of shattered concrete and twisted metal, scarred with black streaks of fires that had burned out long ago. Whatever city this place had once been Sephiroth couldn't tell beyond that it had been an advanced industrial city like Midgar or Junon.

"It's a simple retrieval mission. To get the Materia from the top of the Tower and return with it to the church," Cloud explained. He pointed his chin to the distance where Sephiroth could see a sheared off skyscraper, a broken spire reaching for the sky. "There's no time requirement. Though the faster, the better."

"Do you know the way?" Sephiroth asked.

"No," Cloud said. "I've included a scrambler program to change the layout on activation. The church and the Tower are the only constants."

"That's impressive," Sephiroth said, eyeing the area around them. He could see no tale-tell seams or misaligned blocks. The work was clean and very well done. "Shall we get started then?"

Cloud simply inclined his head and gestured to the broken pavement leading away from the church. A silent _after you_ as clear as if he had spoken aloud. Sephiroth nodded and started forward.

They set off with Sephiroth in the lead. It didn't take them long to trip an enemy encounter. Bombs. With both Sephiroth and Cloud they make quick work of the enemy, though neither carried Ice Materia, and moved on. The path winding through the rubble was fairly complex and required some thinking outside the box as occasionally the only way forward required going through an abandoned building or across precariously placed steel beams. There were enough dead ends as well that they wound up backtracking a fair amount. The encounter rate was also set fairly high so it was unusual for them to go more than a city block without having to fight something. The monsters were drawn from all over the world and it made the likelihood of this actually being a real city somewhere marginally smaller.

The eventually reached the Tower and found it to be much the same, having to climb down before they could find access to the path up. They skyscraper must have once been an office building; desks, rusted file cabinets and other accoutrements littered the shattered building. At the top was an open area that had been swept clean of whatever had been before, except for a single weather worn executive's desk on which were placed two Materia.

"Are these the Materia we need to take back?" Sephiroth asked, even though it was obvious that they were.

"Only one," Cloud said.

"What? Why?" Sephiroth turned to look at Cloud in surprise. Cloud had been quiet as they made their way here, but he had been a comforting presence at Sephiroth's back. Now, though, Sephiroth could almost feel the other man drawing away, though there was no discernable reason that Sephiroth should have that impression. Sephiroth frowned. This was not the way he has wanted the training session to go.

"That is the requirements of the mission. We can only return with one. You have to choose." Cloud said softly.

"What are the parameters?" Sephiroth asked.

"None. Just choose." Sephiroth frowned. How was he expected to choose if he didn't know what would be needed for the scenario? He stepped forward to examine the Materia.

The first of the two beads set in a single slot mounted on a tattered and sun-bleached pink ribbon was the size of a large marble. It was milky-white in color with the barest hint of mint green in the shadowed underside of the curved bead. Though it was a Magic Materia by color, it was oddly empty, without even the hint of a place where a spell could bloom given enough time. Sephiroth had the eerie feeling that if he reached too far he might fall into that pale void and never find his way out.

The other couldn't rightly be called a 'bead' as it was roughly the size of a closed fist, and it was so dark that it appeared black at first glance. The tarnished silver cuff it was placed in had a picture of a monster that may have been part dragon or part bird with seven feathered wings etched into the metal around the slot. The Black Materia held only a single spell, but while spells in other Materia had brought to mind stars in the sky, this one was like looking into the sun. It was a powerful spell and he could tell that if he were to try to cast it himself the draw would demand more than he had and if he let it the spell would gladly suck him dry to be cast, even if it killed him in the process. Though, it whispered to him to cast the spell, it gave him no name or echo of what effect it would bring into being. Sephiroth wondered if that was because it was a simulated Materia created by the training room.

He glanced back a Cloud, who was watching him with a blank face and no hint at what the correct answer was. _Maybe there is no correct answer, _Sephiroth carefully weighed the options between the two Materia and made his choice. As he stepped forward to pick up the Black Materia, the small feather charm that had worked itself loose from his boot chimed merrily. "This one."

Sephiroth held out the Materia to Cloud, but he didn't take it. Cloud simply turned and walked away. Feeling at a loss, Sephiroth glanced back at the White Materia left behind. Had he made the right choice? It was too late now, the other Materia was gone. Sephiroth placed the heavy cuff around his arm, it fit like it was made for him, and followed Cloud out of the Tower.

Going back was easier, even without the map function on the PHS Sephiroth could have easily navigated his way through the maze back to the church. Cloud was tense and silent the entire time. His manner put Sephiroth on edge. Especially once he recalled the last time that Cloud's manner was like this was back at the train graveyard in the slums. When the attack came this time he wasn't taken completely by surprise.

Sephiroth had improved in leaps and bounds; thanks in a large part to Cloud's training. He was able to let his body and muscle memory react while a part of his mind analyzed, formed and discarded plans just as quickly. Cloud wasn't keeping to an obvious pattern like he had in Mideel, but Sephiroth was more familiar with Cloud's fighting style then he used to be, and he could easily counter some of Cloud's more commonly used sequences, and on occasion able to slide a strike in as Cloud changed the Fusion Sword's configuration.

He fought harder and lasted longer, but the end result was still a foregone conclusion. The broadsword was knocked from his hands and he was pinned to the ground. The short wide Back Blade bit deep into the wood beside his ear and Sephiroth was fairly certain that he felt the feather light touch of a few strands of hair suddenly free from their weighty length curling against his face. It was a testament to the blade's sharpness that he felt no tug or pull as the edge cut the silver strands. The mid-length Side Blade in Cloud's other hand was pressed against Sephiroth's stomach, angled so that the slightest shift would send the sharp tip sliding under his ribcage and up through his heart. Sephiroth held himself perfectly still, barely even breathing.

Cloud was just as expressionless as he had been since the Tower. Whatever had gone wrong had started there. Things had been getting better between them in small cautious steps, until they had reached the top of the Tower. "Why did you choose the Black Materia?"

So, the choice did matter, Cloud never said that it didn't, and Sephiroth had forgotten that what Cloud didn't say was often just as important as what he did. Sephiroth felt a surge of anger. How could Sephiroth possibly have made the right choice when Cloud never told him what was expected? "Because the other one did nothing!"

That response seemed to take Cloud by surprise. He tilted his head to one side, and though he didn't say anything, that look was as much an order as any words could have been.

"You gave me no criteria, no reason for me to pick one or the other. I thought that the Materia with a spell would be more useful than one without. Even if I couldn't cast it, maybe you could."

"You- didn't want to cast the spell?" Cloud asked hesitantly, testing the words as he spoke. "Didn't feel _compelled_ to cast the spell?"

Sephiroth kept himself perfectly expressionless although he wanted to frown at the odd question. All spells called to him to be cast, the greater the spell the stronger the demand. He had assumed that others felt that same pull, but maybe not. Not that it should matter if the Materia were just computer generated projections. But Cloud seemed very concerned about it, maybe there was something more to this then he was seeing. Sephiroth guessed at the safest answer. "No."

Cloud eased back, no longer holding the Side Blade against Sephiroth's stomach. Sephiroth reached to lay his hand on Cloud's arm feeling the powerful corded muscle flex under his touch. "I didn't want this to end in an argument."

"What did you want?" he asked, though it was clear enough by Cloud's eyes grew stormy and dark, that he knew what Sephiroth wanted.

"Just you."

"We can't, not here," Cloud said, but Sephiroth could feel the shift of Cloud's growing erection against his thigh.

"Why not?" Sephiroth asked. "You know as well as I that the monitoring booth is empty and no one is going to enter a training room while it's still in session."

"Sephiroth," Cloud said with a warning tone in his voice.

Sephiroth let out a soft snarl of frustration. He was sick and tired of trailing after Cloud like a lost puppy begging for scraps of attention. He knocked the sword at his throat aside with the back of his hand against the flat of the blade. Cloud was so surprised by the unexpected, and insanely stupid, action that he let the sword be pushed aside. Sephiroth used Cloud's momentary distraction to heave himself up, rolling them both over. He didn't reach for his weapon that was nearby, but instead leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Cloud's.

For all of Cloud's objections he yielded quickly, mouth opening to accept Sephiroth's searching tongue and his hands ranging up and down Sephiroth's sides and thighs before settling on his ass, pulling Sephiroth against him hard. Sephiroth slid his hand up Cloud's arm to bury his fingers in the short blond tufts at the back of Cloud's head.

"Please," Sephiroth moaned as they broke apart, their breathing gone ragged and harsh. Cloud made a soft noise that may have been acceptance or further objection. Whichever it was he lowered his head to trail burning kisses along Sephiroth's jaw and throat. Cloud's hands tugged at Sephiroth's shirt, his weapons lay forgotten beside them.

Sephiroth let his eyes drift closed. His finger's carding through Cloud's soft hair, as Cloud worked his way downwards. Cloud's hands gently massaged Sephiroth's hardened length through his heavy uniform, before tugging at the confining belts and cloth. Sephiroth hissed when Cloud's hot mouth closed over him.

Strong hands held him down as Sephiroth's body arched and writhed under Cloud's ministrations. The small restraint was as much a driving force pushing towards the edge as Cloud's tongue pressing against the small slit at the tip of Sephiroth's cock or curling along his shaft. It was clear that Cloud had forgotten nothing from their time at Icicle Inn any more then Sephiroth had.

Cloud knew the ways to build Sephiroth up to excruciating heights of pleasure or send him hurtling towards completion fast and hard. This time Cloud was clearly going for the latter with hands and mouth expertly pushing Sephiroth further and further. Though he tried to hold himself back Sephiroth could hear nothing over the pounding of blood in his veins, his muscles snapped taut and his body arched as the world shattered around him. As he shattered into a million quivering pieces.

As a familiar lethargy swept over him, Sephiroth opened his eyes to blink lazily up at the faux sky, warm wetness spreading across his stomach. He tried to shove back his disappointment that it was over with so quickly and focus on better things. Like, that Cloud wasn't going to cast Sephiroth aside entirely. That Cloud still wanted him.


	15. Chapter 15

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 15

… … …

Sephiroth blinked up at Cloud. Cloud offered no explanations but the erection straining at his uniform pants was explanation enough for Sephiroth. He shifted to make Cloud's task easier. Sephiroth groaned as Cloud gently explored his opening with fingers slick with Sephiroth's own semen. Very little preparation must have been needed, Sephiroth was already relaxed from his orgasm, because before he could think about what they were doing Cloud had draped Sephiroth's leg over his shoulder and was thrusting inside.

Sephiroth's fingers curled, digging furrows into the brittle concrete beneath him, as Cloud hit that spot perfectly with every stroke. Warmth began pooling once again low in his stomach and his muscles started to tense as shivers of pleasure ran up and down his body. Cloud groaned, the sound more low and feral like a growl, as he ground himself into Sephiroth. The sound shot right through Sephiroth and caused his spent cock to twitch.

"Touch yourself," Cloud ordered, his voice low and harsh. Sephiroth shivered and gripped his half-hard length in his hand. The scrape of rough calluses over too sensitive skin was almost painful in conjunction with the pleasure growing with every hard thrust.

"Please," Sephiroth begged. His voice was hoarse from his throat gone dry with deep panting breaths. He was so close, so close to falling over that edge once again. Cloud dug his fingers hard into Sephiroth's hips, his body arched back in his release. The feel of the other man's cock throbbing deep inside of him was the last push Sephiroth needed as his body shuddered in a second orgasm, his cock throbbing in his hand, but little liquid was left to spill onto his sweat and dirt soaked skin.

Cloud collapsed on top of him, and they lay entwined a long moment, gasping for breath. Cloud placed light kisses along Sephiroth's temple, hairline, jaw, any place that was within easy reach. Sephiroth entwined the fingers of one hand with Cloud's. "Thank you." He said softly.

Cloud let out a soft laugh. "You shouldn't."

Sephiroth paused the small circles that his thumb had been lazily rubbing into the back of Cloud's hand. "Why?"

"Because." Cloud pulled back and rolled to his feet, straightening his clothes. Sephiroth followed suit. Disappointed but not surprised that Cloud pulled away. What troubled him was the thoughtful frown on Cloud's face, that seemed to precede Cloud finding reasons to withdraw emotionally. "It seems, I never could say 'no' to you."

"Cloud," Sephiroth started to speak, but Cloud pulled him close and kissed him deeply, but it didn't feel the same, like Cloud was going through familiar motions.

"You should get cleaned up and get some rest," Cloud said as he stepped back, his voice going cool and professional. "We both have missions tomorrow. Let me know if you need my help with Reeve's project."

"Sure, thanks," Sephiroth agreed dazedly even as he struggled to put his objections into words. Cloud was withdrawing again, and Sephiroth didn't know how to stop it. The world around him faded from vivid colors to a bright green grid and then even that faded to darkness as Cloud shut down the program. When Sephiroth exited the training room he was already gone. Deep in thought Sephiroth made his way back to his bunk.

Every time he thought that he and Cloud were getting closer, whenever Cloud seemed to unbend a little, he would suddenly go cold and back off. Sephiroth wanted to confront Cloud about it, but the man already had established a pattern of avoiding questions. If Sephiroth was going to learn anything he would have to find out for himself the connections between Cloud's emotional withdrawals. Maybe once he had something Cloud would fill in the blanks.

Sephiroth impatiently pressed the button for the 15th Floor. The elevator seemed to be taking longer than usual. He was moderately sure that the episodes were not connected to sex. Though there was that one episode at Icicle Inn when Sephiroth touched that scar on Cloud's stomach. The moment was brief and it hadn't reoccurred so Sephiroth had put it out of his mind, but it was possible that the scar was more meaningful then he had at first thought. And, now that he thought about it, the one episode in the training room happened directly after sex- what was it Cloud had said again? _I never could say 'no' to you._ That was blatantly untrue. Cloud said 'no' to him frequently, usually whenever Sephiroth asked what the hell was going on, but he had said it with such conviction that he clearly believed it.

So, what did Cloud's scar, not being able to say 'no,' and the Black Materia all have in common? Sephiroth had no idea. More information on two of those could only be gotten from Cloud himself, the Black Materia, however, must be listed somewhere in ShinRa's Materia Science Department. There were very few Materia that were completely unknown, they even logged rumors of rare Materia and spells.

Finally reaching his floor, Sephiroth frowned as the elevator slowed to a stop but the door didn't open. He was about to hit the 'open door' button when his PHS rang. Wondering if Tuesti wanted to talk about the mission, Sephiroth fished out his PHS and flipped it open without checking the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Sephiroth." Hojo's oily voice from the other end of the line made Sephiroth's hackles rise. "You're needed up in my lab for an exam."

Odd, he didn't have anything scheduled. Not that things like schedules have ever given Hojo pause when he was in one of his manic highs and working on a dozen projects at once with ideas for a dozen more twisting through his brain. Sephiroth sighed softy so the PHS wouldn't pick it up and tapped the 'open door' button. "I'll be right there. I just need to get cleaned up."

The door didn't open. Sephiroth fell automatically into a fighting stance as the elevator shuddered and started to move upwards. His free hand itched for a sword but the space was too small to draw the broadsword he carried. Hojo voice smug voice came from the other end of the PHS. "That won't be necessary and may in fact be- counterproductive."

Sephiroth felt a cold feeling of dread. "What do you mean?"

"I must say, I was rather surprised at your rendezvous with Strife." Sephiroth's eyes widened in shock. Hojo know. He saw them in the training room.

"And you couldn't wait until morning to lecture me about it?" Sephiroth asked.

Hojo gave a dry chuckle, sounding genuinely amused. "No, no I wasn't going to lecture you. Seeing you with Strife put a few things into perspective for me."

"Perspective?"

"Nothing you need to worry about my boy," Hojo said genially and ended the call. Sephiroth snapped his PHS shut and pocketed it. This elevator only went up to the 59th Floor, after that you had to use the executive elevators or the stairs. Sephiroth briefly debated using the stairs to go back down to the dorm levels, even if Hojo had the elevators on lockdown there were security protocols that prevented the stairs from being similarly locked.

The elevator opened to a pair of Hojo's thugs. Large men dressed in green scrubs. Sephiroth could have dropped the both of them within a moment, and he spent a brief moment entertaining the thought, but it would cause more grief then it was worth in the long run. So Sephiroth trudged over to the next set of elevators with two trained gorillas trailing behind.

Hojo's main lab was dark and eerily empty, which killed Sephiroth's theory that Hojo was in one of his manic phases. A focused Hojo did not bode well for Sephiroth's evening. He mentally upped his internal threat assessment. The orderlies guided Sephiroth to the main operating theater. The smell of antiseptic and Mako was a veneer over blood and bile and other things that have been ground into the steel and concrete. Harsh lights were lit up and focused on a steel metal table, heavy reinforced restraints hanging off the side.

Hojo was tinkering with the layout of a various tools. Sephiroth didn't know whether he should be relieved or worried that it wasn't the usual array of scalpels and Mako injections. The scientist turned around with a broad smile on his face and adjusted his glasses.

"Sephiroth! My boy," Hojo said. Sephiroth blinked in surprise. Hojo wasn't snappish like usual. "Come here and have a seat, we'll start with a-"

"Why aren't you angry?" Sephiroth asked suspiciously. He didn't like when Hojo changed his mind so abruptly, especially without any discernable reason. "You were quite vehement in your dislike of Cloud."

Hojo waved a hand dismissively. "I should have realized that it would be pointless to forbid you when instincts were pushing you to act. Can't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner," Hojo trailed off, mumbling for himself, fingers scrabbling for a pen and one of his ever-present notepads. "Strife is a marvelous specimen- in his own way."

Sephiroth frowned. This was a nearly complete turnaround from Hojo's earlier statements about Cloud. "Is this really necessary?"

"Of course it is," Hojo said, turning to the thick file laying open nearby. He flipped a couple of the pages, his eyes scanning rapidly over the dense text. "We'll need to compare your DNA to your last baseline test. Given the known rates of assimilation, mutations may already be in effect. Isolation of any remains of Strife's DNA is also imperative for comparison."

Sephiroth's eyes widened as he realized the implications and he unconsciously backed up a step. He desperately tried thinking of some way to get out of there. "Strife's DNA is WolfHaven's proprietary information. Let me get cleaned up and you can perform the procedure without compromising company relations."

"Don't be ridiculous," Hojo said with a condescending look tossed over his shoulder. "If they were concerned about proprietary information they would have instructed Strife better then to have unprotected sex, or any intimate relations."

Sephiroth frowned thoughtfully. He knew that a DNA sample could be gotten from saliva and sweat, shed skin cells and hair follicles. Not mention from the semen itself. He wasn't sure if it would necessarily be enough for a full mapping, but given Hojo's level of interest whatever he could get probably wouldn't be good for Strife or WolfHaven. "You aren't concerned that they will have the same access?"

"They are welcome to try," Hojo said with a nasty grin, and Sephiroth realized that he had never been told to refrain from sexual experimentation. On some occasions Hojo had even encouraged such—provided that his partner had already been subject to ShinRa's medical examinations. "Transparency and independent verification are part of the scientific method after all."

"I would feel more comfortable cleaning up first." Sephiroth was running out of arguments. Hojo had an answer for each one, and the longer he stood here talking the more uncomfortable he felt with the building need to clean up. Hojo frowned at him.

"Stop being difficult," he snapped.

"I"m not-" but that was all Sephiroth was able to get out as one of the orderlies stepped forward to cast a Sleep spell. Sephiroth crumpled to the ground. He recalled a trooper's complaint that Sleep never worked and decided that he would like to have a word with that man. And that he needed an anti-sleep charm at the rate that this keeps happening.

Sephiroth was unceremoniously hauled up and dumped on the cool metal table. The orderlies weren't as careful as the AVALANCHE infantrymen back at Icicle Inn, and he started to rouse almost immediately at the rough handling. They were quick though and had him tied and stripped before he could retaliate.

The orderlies stepped back so that Hojo and his assistant could take over. Examinations were never fun, but this was on a whole new level of humiliation. Sephiroth flushed with anger and shame as clothing was cut off and his body was carefully gone over to collect every possible trace of Cloud's sweat or saliva that might still linger. A bit mark on his calf that Sephiroth didn't even remember getting was carefully swabbed, cleaned, and measured.

There was at least some measure of comfort in the cool, impersonal affectation that Hojo assumed during the examination. It was easier to he see himself and his body as Hojo saw it: just another specimen, muscle and bone, chemicals and Mako. The assistant however, however, had a fixed look of disgust on his face as semen samples were collected. Disgust and thinly veiled enjoyment in Sephiroth's helpless struggled as he prodded and pinched a little too hard in sensitive areas. A SOLDIER may have a greater ability to isolate and shut down pain sensors, but the overall heightened sensitivity made being pushed to the brink of that point pure torture.

Unable to struggle against his bonds, or fend off the violation in any way Sephiroth curled his lips in a snarl at the young man. Hojo wouldn't have cared and it wouldn't stop the proceedings, but the assistant jumped back and the look of fear in his expression was somewhat gratifying if short lived. All of Cloud's lessons and gentle words meant nothing under the harsh lights of Hojo's labs. This was what he was. Stripped down and laid bare, nothing more than Hojo's creation. To be used as he was made: a weapon, a tool. Humanity was an illusion that was far too easily stripped away.

Blood was drawn as well as tissue samples. The lumbar puncture was, in Sephiroth's opinion, completely unnecessary. And throughout it all Hojo kept mumbling over his notes.

"J-cell level and Mako saturation still appears in optimal ratio." Sephiroth listened to anything spoken clearly enough to be heard and tried to fit it in with the other things he had learned. The mental exercise kept him from dwelling too much on what his body was going though. "No indication of reunion having been triggered yet… perhaps intercourse as a method of infection prior to reunion, further supports the Gendered Theory… will need to examine Strife for signs of increasing J-cell levels…"

_Reunion._ He'd heard that before. The lecture? He seemed to recall the bit he watched while at WolfHaven talked of unnatural instincts created by the Jenova virus, reunion and reproduction- infection? To spread the virus? Could that be why he was so attracted to Cloud? Because this thing inside of him wanted to infect Cloud? The people on the tape had been clearly afraid of what he supposedly did because of the influence of the virus. How much more damage could someone like Cloud do? Perhaps Cloud's shattered city in his simulation would become a reality.

The… samples were divided between dozens of tiny vials, different chemical and Mako mixtures were added and then subjected to an array of specialized Sense Materia. During the procedure while Hojo and his assistant were working over the glass vials Sephiroth was abandoned on the table, immobilized and ignored. Even the orderlies, who had brought him in, were socializing in a back corner studiously ignoring anything except a direct order.

After what probably only felt like an eternity, the computer screens lit up with the results. Strings of letters and numbers that were meaningless to Sephiroth scrolled across the screens. Sephiroth was more focused on Hojo's reaction. First was maniacal glee at cracking whatever secrets were hidden within Cloud's DNA, then outrage.

"Thieves!" Hojo shrieked, his voice going high and tight with his anger. Grabbing the tray of the remaining unused samples, Hojo spun and hurled them at the far wall with a strength that was surprising in a man of his slender, unenhanced frame. The glass vials shattered against the wall and the tray fell to the floor with a loud clatter causing even the orderlies to look up from their studious disregard. Hojo's eyes fell on Sephiroth bound to the table. "You," he snarled and stalked forward. Long, bony fingers raked roughly through Sephiroth's hair, tightening and pulling he head up at an uncomfortable angle. "How long have you been giving those people _my_ secrets?"

"What are you-" Sephiroth tried to ask, confused by Hojo's anger.

"Even if you've been screwing him since Strife first arrived _that-" _ Hojo pointed at the screen. "That takes years of controlled exposure to Je- to S-cells, to _your_ cells. How long have you been giving them my secrets because you can't keep it in your pants?"

Sephiroth kept his face carefully blank, even as he felt a surge of adrenalin at Hojo's confirmation of the tie between the Jenova virus and him. But, Cloud? And what were S-cells? Before he could ask, however, Hojo snapped at him. "Out, just get out!"

The assistant leapt into action and released Sephiroth's bindings with quick, jerky movements before Hojo could turn his ire on anyone else. Sephiroth decided not to look a gift chocobo too close at the nares, dressed in a one of the spare uniforms that were kept in a nearby locker room for convenience, and left as quickly and quietly as SOLDIER training and enhancements allowed.

Reaching his bunk, with his mind spinning with thoughts and possibilities Sephiroth dove for his locker. Hojo's computer wasn't the only place that listed a Project C. The disk proved to be stubbornly elusive. There had been little time for Sephiroth to play with data disk due to Tuesti's pet project and his regular work. After nearly dumping the entire contents of his locker onto the floor Sephiroth found it under an old radio codes manual.

He quickly powered up his computer and started running the disk forward. Sephiroth wished that there was some way to mark sections instead of having to start from the beginning every time he was interrupted or had to turn it off, but the recording wasn't set up for it. The section he was looking for was towards the end of the recording, the last of the three major programs under the Jenova Project. He scrolled past Project G and S stopping only when Dessau started to scrawl something in the third column.

"…ject C went into full swing after Nibelheim. Survivors were brought to the lab for human experimentation. The most notable of whom were Cloud Strife and SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair." Sephiroth felt his attention sharpen. Is this the same Zack that attacked him? Is this how Cloud knew the other SOLDIER? Cloud's name had been written and an arrow from Zack F. under Project S arced over to place him in Project C. "The purpose of Project C was to recreate Sephiroth. Not just create a new SOLDIER through the same process, or even create a SOLDIER with the same DNA markers. Hojo genuinely believed that the Jenova virus could actually recreate the mind and personality by restructuring the neuron pathways in the brain."

Sephiroth frowned. A frequent theme in some of Hojo's raving monologues was that the work he did on Sephiroth could not be duplicated. Even other SOLDIERs, Hojo claimed, were pale shadows to what he had created in Sephiroth. So why would he even try to do something he took great pains to say was impossible? Sephiroth felt a morass of confusing emotions at the revelation. Hurt, that he was not in fact the unique paragon of strength and power that Hojo always claimed. Relief, that he wasn't as _alone_ as he had always felt. If Hojo had actually been successful, that is. And a little guilty for wishing his life on someone else.

"There is still some ongoing debate on the extent of brain structure that can be transferred from one subject to another. The most commonly accepted theory is that it is impossible even with the extensive level of genetic and structural changed that can be brought on by Jenova's genesharing abilities. Records of ShinRa's experimentation clearly show that the shape of the regions as well as genetically encoded information like instincts could be transferred. Introducing these new structures in SOLDIERs had to be done very carefully as poorly timed mutation in the brain could damage the SOLDIER's memory, logic or even capacity to function as a human being." Sephiroth closed his eyes with a grimace as his earlier fears were confirmed. What this meant for SOLDIER though, and what he was going to do about it, what he _could_ do about it, Sephiroth didn't know.

"The neural network itself forms our thoughts and memories are not determined by genetics but by experience, it grows and changed as we live our lives therefore cannot be transferred. That Hojo thought he could do so, most see as a sign that he had finally gone off the deep end. However, as we learn more about the connections between the Lifestream and memory, there is a growing school of thought that this idea isn't as impossible as it seems."

"Mind you, 'not impossible' is not the same as easy. Ironically, the one Hojo touted as his greatest failure was also the closest that he had ever come to success." Sephiroth's ears practically perked up. Hojo had a tendency to revel in the failures of others and bury his own. Knowing something like this had the potential to be very useful if applied correctly. Given this new information Sephiroth was somewhat surprised that Hojo hadn't recognized Cloud, but on the other hand Hojo tended to put things out of his mind that didn't directly stroke his ego. His genetic work, however he would instantly recognize, and that may account for why Hojo had been so angry earlier.

"Cloud Strife was officially labeled as being locked in a permanent catatonic state due to Mako addiction. We know this because early successes made the records too valuable to Hojo for them to be to be destroyed. From what we have been able to determine with both the virtue of hindsight as well as Cloud's statements on this period, the catatonia was the last stage before the final restructuring of his neural net to take place as the original pathways were wiped clean." In a strange way it would make sense that Cloud was the one. Sephiroth always felt more comfortable in Cloud's presence. He wondered if this was due to some instinctual recognition of like meeting like.

While Sephiroth was contemplating this odd piece of information the recording continued on. The screen behind the podium changed to a picture of a shattered Mako tube in a dark and dusty lab. "It was at this time that the SOLDIER Zack Fair broke both himself and Cloud out of the lab, just as Hojo terminated their trial.-"

"W-w-wait a minute," a voice interrupted again. The red headed Turk that had interrupted the professor last time still had the microphone and was making use of it again. "If Cloud's, like, supposed to be the perfect copy of Sephiroth, how come _they_ don't look nothin' alike?"

"Ah, good question… meant to address that…" Dessau started flipping through slides until he came to one with two pictures of Cloud side-by-side. One was obviously lifted from a ShinRa ID badge, it still had a scuffed up ShinRa logo at the bottom. Next to it was a candid picture of Cloud against the backdrop of concrete rubble and twisted rebar. There must have been a span of at least ten years between the two. The younger Cloud had cheeks still slightly rounded with baby fat and a sullen, downtrodden expression. The older one was lean and hard. He was looking off into the distance with flat, disinterested eyes that shone with a blue Mako glow. "Because, for reasons known only to Hojo, he halted the outward visible expression of Sephiroth's genetics. You can see some minor changes, the finer, narrower bone structure in the face, higher cheek bones, thinner nose. The hair became lighter, finer then it had been. The hands are different as well though you can't see it in these pictures. All subtle changes due to introduction of Sephiroth's genes but halted before their expression was complete. Now, does that answer your question?"

The camera spun back to capture the slack-jawed red-head squinting at the screens and nodding absently. It then panned back to Cloud who watched the audience with the same distant expression that Sephiroth recognized as Cloud deep in his tactical thinking mode; weighing the crowd's likely reaction and every possible outcome. Whatever Cloud had been nervous about didn't come to pass and the camera panned back to Dessau. "Where was I… ah, that's right."

"Now, Zack had an interesting position in Project C. He was technically classified as an early failure since introducing the S-cells to an established SOLDIER yielded little results because the Mako and antibodies already in the system were more than capable of fighting off the new strain being introduced. He was useful however in gaining direct side-by-side comparisons of Cloud's development as the trial progressed. Because of his resistance Zack was not afflicted nearly as bad by the Mako addiction, and not at all by the attempts at the neural restructuring. He was able to plan and execute the escape of Hojo's labs with the catatonic Cloud.

"They made their way to Midgar. I have statements from several sources that efforts to locate them was stymied from within the ranks by friends and acquaintances of Zack Fair. Only so much could be done and the two fugitives were eventually located by the 137th Battalion in the cliffs overlooking Midgar." The picture now changed to the familiar cliff face outside of the city. A battered and weather worn Buster Sword was planted deep into the stony earth.

"It was here that Zack Fair was killed and Cloud Strife left for dead. However, before he passed Zack was able to give the Buster Sword to Cloud." Sephiroth frowned, maybe the two Zacks were not the same person after all, though if Cloud had thought the other man dead it would certainly account for his surprise on the tarmac. "I mention this because the sword was not the only thing that Zack passed on in this moment.

"Remember Cloud Strife was not just in a state of deep Mako addiction, but the S-cell had been at work mutating his physical structure to match that of Sephiroth's until a final Mako shower of undiluted Mako halted all transformations." Sephiroth jumped a little at the mention of S-cells. If S-cells were what made Cloud to be like Sephiroth then they must be the Jenova virus primed with his DNA. Of course, S-cells. Sephiroth. He almost rolled his eyes at Hojo's transparency.

"The final Mako shower left Cloud's mind a blank slate only needing additional data, data that was received from Zack Fair's blood at the time of his death. Zack had also had injections from the S-cell solutions, but unlike Cloud the technicians were less vigorous in his Mako regiment. Zack's blood contained the virus and fresh DNA created a connection, a resonance between the two that allowed the Mako, undiluted Lifestream in Cloud's system to build the basic structures needed, fine motor skills, language, abilities and tactics.

"Although it is clear that Zack's influence has made up the majority of Cloud's muscle memory and knowledge base, we believe that the lingering traces of the S-cells in Zack's system added some of Sephiroth's general thought patterns, before or after he went crazy is somewhat open to debate." Dessau paused and gave a weak smile to the audience. Nobody laughed. "Ah, sorry. Anyways, the blend of these two seems to account for the early personality that was noted in Cloud Strife until direct exposure to the Lifestream corrected the damage and restructured much of the original wiped memories and personality."

Sephiroth shuddered at the thought of what Cloud had gone through, having his mind and memories stripped away like that. Sephiroth prized his own, because they were the only thing that were truly his, everything else, even his body was owned by ShinRa or Hojo. That Hojo could have that last piece stripped away as well was horrifying.

"We still don't fully understand how it was possible that Cloud could recover his original memories, even from contact with the Lifestream. Mainly because we still don't fully understand what it is and how it relates to us. We do know that our thoughts and memories carry on within the Lifestream after death." Sephiroth blinked a little in surprise at that phrasing. For a man of science to state that they 'knew' something, generally meant that it had a good weight of facts to support it. Yet, as far as he was aware, scientists scoffed at the beliefs that the Lifestream carried the souls of the dead. Or maybe it was just ShinRa scientists that did so to justify their drawing on Mako so callously.

"Recently some have theorized that the thoughts that all humans, all creatures, are connected to the Lifestream even in life, constantly feeding it our feelings and experiences, instead of the more commonly believed single transference at the moment of death. But, it is only after we die that we can locate the echo of those memories within the Lifestream. If this is true it would certainly explain why Cloud's memories were still there within the Lifestream though his mind had been completely wiped clean. And we are all grateful to have Cloud here with us today, because without him I know that I, personally, would not be."

… … …

AN:A brief explanation for some of my cultural translations. I try to come up with FFVII equivalents for things that we commonly say but that wouldn't have developed in their world. Most notably using references to Summons for curse words since the only known religion in game is the Wutese worship of Leviathan. My reasoning for this is because Materia is the crystallized form of the Lifestream which is made up of memories and thoughts of the everything that lived. Summon Materia instead of being formed of a memory of an actual thing (like fire) are the collective beliefs of people about a particular, god, spirit, legend, or animal.

The other one is the reference to chocobos instead of horses. I really wanted to use the phrase 'look a gift horse in the mouth' but the FFVII world doesn't have horses so that saying wouldn't have developed the same way. However, with some birds you can determine their age by the nares (the nostrils above their beak), and the only reason you would look a horse in the mouth is to check it's teeth to determine its age. So, given a parallel cultural evolution the slightly different saying would develop with similar meaning.


	16. Chapter 16

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 16

… … …

"While this barely scratches the surface of what ShinRa had been involved in and the numerous project that Hojo headed as the Director of the Science Department, this does conclude this installment of the Science of ShinRa, SOLDIER and the Jenova Project. I would be happy to answer any questions, any remaining questions, that you may have at this time," Professor Dessau said. "Yes, in the front."

The camera turned to focus on a weedy looking man in a business suit flanked by a man in mismatched armor, a mercenary rather than a trained soldier like many of the other ranking officials had. "Without access to the Jenova virus, what are the chances of being able to recreate the SOLDIER program?"

Sephiroth frowned. He had been under the impression that the Jenova virus was carried by the Lifestream, technically anyone willing and able to drill deep enough should be able to access the natural Mako. Although, Red did say something about how badly the Lifestream in Mideel was infected, maybe it wasn't the same everywhere.

"At our level of technology, nearly impossible," Dessau said. "While we can locate the necessary strings of DNA, we do not have the Materia or the technology to copy from one cell to another."

"What about a breeding program from existing SOLDIERs?" There were a few unhappy grumbles from the crowd at the suggestion. Sephiroth wondered at the man's desperation to recreate the program. Even with ShinRa in control of all existing SOLDIERs there were more than enough that many were hired out to other companies under long term mission contracts. Maybe he just didn't want to deal the non-disclosure agreements. Sephiroth snorted softly to himself, that was most likely it.

"That would depend upon which generation of SOLDIER you are talking about. Any first or second generation SOLDIERs are effectively infertile. Their DNA is too unique to… mesh with a standard human or even another SOLDIER. The third generation SOLDIERs may be able to produce viable offspring with other third generation SOLDIERs as they all have had exactly the same set of mutations," Professor Dessau explained. Sephiroth was surprised at the unexpected sense of loss. He had never considered family, or felt any previous inclination for such, but to have it ripped away so blithely was… disconcerting. He wasn't really sure how he felt about it. "However, I wouldn't recommend it. As even a female SOLDIER could rip your face off if she wishes to express her displeasure."

"Damn straight!" came a muffled yell from the crowd. Low laughter rippled through the crowd. Even Dessau gave a small smile before nodding to someone else in the audience.

"Yes, Commissioner Tuesti?"

"There are some who have suggested that Nibelheim and Meteorfall occurred because of Jenova's control over Sephiroth." Sephiroth took the time to study the older Tuesti. After having met the Director in person he found that the likeness was not as uncanny as he first expected. This man was more heavy set with stern lines etched around his eyes and mouth. His focus may have been no less intense then the Director's but the hints of humor that lurked in the corners of his eyes and mouth were absent.

"It's difficult to offer a complete evaluation of the events, no offense meant to Mr. Strife, but there are things that someone not properly trained just wouldn't notice. But, given what we know of the Jenova virus' properties it is most likely that Nibelheim was due to Sephiroth suffering a genuine psychotic break. The virus had two primary drives, reproduction and reunion. It will instill these drives into its host, by altering the brain and hormone chemistry.

"Keep in mind that this is not the same as the host being controlled," Professor Dessau said, though Sephiroth still failed to see the distinction, you were still compelled to act in ways that you otherwise wouldn't. "The host, especially ones with higher levels of intelligence are able to act as they choose, but the new instincts will make them want to act in accordance with the virus's drives on a fundamental level. Like how we look for a safe place to rest, or want to sleep with a sexually appealing partner.

"When the Jenova virus is introduced into a new area the first is reproduction," Desau said writing the word on the board. Sephiroth was tempted to try scanning forward, he didn't care how or why the virus spread, he wanted to know what it was doing to him, to Cloud, to the other SOLDIERs, and everyone else it came in contact with, but without really knowing what he was looking for he was afraid to miss something vital if he did. "To spread out the virus in an as wide an area as possible by whatever means possible. Fortunately the virus is not an airborne one and it needs to be spread by sharing infected cells from one host to another. The means by which this happens depends on the intelligence level of the host, as well as any native skills and abilities that the host may bring to bear.

"Once an area reaches a tipping point, the density of infected individuals within an accessible area, the second drive of Reunion is triggered. This will draw all infected individuals together to a central point and mass genesharing goes into effect. The goal of Reunion is, we believe, to select the best gene sequences from all local species and create a new host that is able to overcome whatever obstacles keep the virus isolated geographically. Then once it reaches a new location the process starts over again.

"Now, even if Sephiroth was overwhelmed by these drives, Nibelheim makes no sense because it promoted neither the spread of the Jenova virus or the goal of Reunion. It was an act that can best be described as a lashing out. The psychological analysis that I have read suggest it was a sudden and violent break from reality the cause of which is generally presumed to be from information he learned regarding Project Jenova. Meteorfall on the other hand is clearly the result of a completed cycle."

"How do you figure? We ain't all infected?" Someone from the audience shouted. Sephiroth growled softly in frustration. What did any of this have to do with Cloud? And, why? Why were they just teasing him with what he wanted to focus on this trivial crap? He was certain they knew the information he wanted, probably everyone in that room knew things that would make everything suddenly make sense, but they kept dancing around it.

"Ah, good question. The jury is still out on the answer. The most popular theory is that the overall infection level was enough to trigger the final phase. Geostigma should give you an idea of how prevalent the virus really was. Not just in SOLDIERs but regular people who had even the most periphery contact with Mako or the Lifestream at any point in their lives had succumbed to it. The fact that the virus was usually dormant or clean due to the amount of Mako exposure that came with it meant a limited visible mutation.

"Another theory is that the cycle was pushed through faster than usual due to the unexpected resistance offered from the Ancients and the Lifestream. This theory is rather controversial because it forces us to completely rethink our concept of consciousness and intelligence. They usually explain this by the virus somehow hijacking the host's thought process, which is where the Commissioner's question came from. It's a popular theory outside of the scholars and scientists.

"The third theory is equally controversial, is that Sephiroth was able to hijack _the virus_ and use it with the express purpose of destruction. Not just of the Planet but every other living thing out there."

"How is that any difference from Jenova's goals?" Tuesti asked. Sephiroth tilted his head thoughtfully. This was an unsettling line of questions in more ways than one. Dessau always painstakingly referred to the Jenova virus or the virus. By referring to it as Tuesti did he firmly placed himself in the 'non-scientific' camp that viewed it as a sentient being with goals and motives. Sephiroth wondered which one was right.

"Because the Jenova virus doesn't have goals. The total destruction of the planet was a side effect of the cycles, not the reason for them. Whereas Sephiroth, in his insanity, had stated death and destruction as his primary goal starting with-"

The screen went black. This must have been when he pulled the disk. Damn. Couldn't he have given it a few more moments? He combed his fingers roughly through his hair. The pieces of the puzzle just didn't fit together. None of it gave him any information about Cloud. But the more he found out about Jenova and SOLDIER the more he wanted to learn for its own sake. And possibly for his.

Sephiroth's PHS rang, shill and unnaturally loud in the quiet room. The noise was startling but Sephiroth managed to control the near involuntary jump at the unexpected sound. He cautiously checked the caller ID before answering. What in the world did Tuesti want in the middle of the night? "Sephiroth here."

"Ah, Sephiroth," Tuesti said sounding distracted. "I just finished the last of the analysis on the sample you gave me. You may want to come up to see this."

"Now? It's-" Sephiroth glanced at the clock. "Three fifteen in the morning."

"Really? Huh, so it is. Did you have anything better to do?"

_Sleep._ "Not really," Sephiroth said with a sigh. "I'll be right there."

"I'm in my executive office. Just let me know when you get to the elevator and I'll call it up."

Sephiroth was standing in Tuesti's office on the 66th Floor less than ten minutes later. This office was nothing like his working office. It contained a massive cherry wood desk that was nearly empty except for a green blotter and a computer terminal. The Director held up his hand in a gesture for Sephiroth to wait a moment.

"You will want to turn your PHS off," he said before following his own advice and placing the deactivated PHS on the table. After a moment's hesitation Sephiroth followed suit. Then Tuesti pulled out a heavy gold ring studded with several small semi-precious green beryls from his jacket's inner front pocket and placed it on his right hand ring finger. Sephiroth didn't even sense the Materia until the spell was cast and the feeling of magic washed over him.

"What was that?" he asked.

"A modified Lightning Materia that emits an EMP that will disable any listening devices in the office," Tuesti explained, turning his PHS back on. "It's against ShinRa policy to have one of these in the building but I didn't think you would want anyone to be listening in on this conversation."

"Oh," Sephiroth was obviously going to have to revise his opinion of Tuesti, though that first impression as little more than an ineffectual geek was surprisingly difficult to set aside when the man still wore the same rumpled suit and distracted expression. Clearly Tuesti would be a force to be reckoned with if he ever seriously turned to company politics. "So, what did you find?"

Tuesti turned on the computer on his desk. Sephiroth could hear the fans whirring as it started up. Tuesti pulled up a program with a few sharp taps of the keyboard. He turned the monitor so that Sephiroth could more easily see the screen. "This is the nanomites programming."

Sephiroth dutifully examined the screen. It was filled with an indecipherable string of number and letters. He glanced up at Tuesti. "Is this supposed to mean something to me?"

"Wait for it," Tuesti said. "This is a copy of Angeal's genetic profile. You may want to compare the highlighted sections."

The second file was opened side-by-side with the first. "They are identical."

Tuesti nodded. "The nanomites are designed to identify a specific genetic structure and make certain modifications."

Sephiroth felt a chill. These tiny machines were like the Jenova virus, but why would someone go to such lengths to create them when the Jenova virus was available for the taking from any Mako spring in the world? Unless they knew of the dangers that Jenova presented. Programmed machines would be much easier to control. "What kind of changes? Can they be stopped?"

"Apparently to repair a specific genetic sequence. I don't think that you would want them to stop them given that your friend will be dead within the next couple of years without the nanomites." So Zack really had given Angeal the cure for degeneration, but how was that even possible, even Dessau said they couldn't do genetic rewriting without the Jenova virus. And what about Genesis?

"Can you duplicate it?"

"No," Tuesti paused in though. "Well, maybe. f I had the joint resources of Urban Development, Weapons Development, and the Science Department, a half-dozen specialists and 10 years of dedicated research. Although I may be able to knock that down to seven since we're reverse engineering and not inventing from scratch."

"Can you figure out who made them?" He could always try to approach Zack directly, but the thought of that made Sephiroth a little hesitant. He'd rather go straight to the source if possible. Tuesti gave him a searching look that cut right through the foolish demeanor the man usually wore.

"Here, let me show you something." Sephiroth followed as Tuesti stood and walked to the large cabinet that filled the side wall. A small key with a glowing bead of Materia had been left in the lock. A deft twist of the key and Tuesti opened two of the doors. Inside the cabinet was nearly as empty as the rest of the office except for a single large microscope and a small case of slides. Tuesti turned on a light and looked into the eyepiece and adjusted the knobs minutely before stepping away. "Take a look."

Sephiroth glanced at Tuesti before looking into the eyepiece himself. It took a moment for his eyes to understand what he was seeing among the tiny threads of mythril and drops of green and gold. "The ShinRa logo… D-E-P-T… Department… Sci Dev?"

He lifted his head after reading the abbreviated stamped words. Tuesti nodded. "Department of Science and Development, as best as I can figure."

"That department doesn't exist."

"No, it doesn't," Tuesti agreed. "Take another look, do you see those scratches next to the ShinRa logo?"

Sephiroth looked back at the nanomites' programming chip. Sure enough, there was a long scratch etched into the metal beside the logo. It was crossed by several additional scratches. Some were diagonal some perpendicular to the main line. "What is it?"

"A maker's mark." Sephiroth jerked his head back and looked at Tuesti.

"So you know who made it?"

"No." Tuesti's expression had gone completely flat and was now examining Sephiroth with that same cool, measuring look that he had gotten from Turks and other very dangerous people who were weighing how much of a danger _you_ were to them.

"You don't know whose mark that is?"

"I didn't say that."

Sephiroth waited, but Tuesti didn't elaborate any further. "Then, whose is it?"

Tuesti closed his eyes and let out a sift sigh. "The scratches are a form of writing from the Kalm region by the native Keltoi peoples called ogham. It has fallen out of use centuries ago, but isn't completely unknown especially not for historians, even amateur ones like my mother, which is where I learned to read the script. The number and angle of the crossed lines distinguish the different letters. These are 'R' and 'T.'"

"Okay," Sephiroth said slowly, still uncertain where Tuesti was going with this lecture. The director reached out and opened one of the shallow drawers that were below the open shelf the microscope rested on. Inside were drafts of a suspension bridge painstakingly inked on large sheets of paper. Tuesti pointed at the corner of one of the pages were a long line was crossed by several shorter ones some at an angle, some perpendicular.

"It's mine," Tuesti said simply.

"You-" Sephiroth started, but then stopped not sure how to ask. Not sure what to ask.

"I have never seen these things before in my life," Tuesti said. He ran a hand through his hair ruffling the ends slightly.

"Why would someone sign their device with another maker's mark?" Even as Sephiroth asked the question his mind starting churning, analyzing and determining multiple reasons, none of them good.

"I don't know," Tuesti said looking troubled. "You get it sometimes when someone is trying to pass off a fake as authentic, but something like this. I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't want to claim something like this even under an unregistered alias."

"What are the chances of Scarlet finding the mark on her samples?"

Tuesti shrugged. "Significantly less than they were. I had Cait Sith collect her samples, and the ones actually in Angeal should flush themselves out of his system soon, if they haven't already."

"What do you mean?"

"Part of the end sequence in the programming is to remove themselves from the host and deactivate once the programmed change is complete," Tuesti explained. He shut the drawer and turned off the light under the microscope before closing and locking the cabinet. "Now, if you don't mind I have a few questions of my own."

"Of course, Director," Sephiroth agreed.

"Reeve," Tuesti absently corrected motioning for Sephiroth to retake the seat across from the desk. "Now, tell me again where the nanomites came from."

Answering questions about the nanomites naturally led to Zack and the first encounter on the tarmac, which lead to questions about Cloud and WolfHaven. Though Sephiroth had never before felt the need to bare his soul to others, he found the words flowing out of him in a flood about everything, his worries, his secrets, his fears. Tuesti… Reeve was surprisingly easy to talk to; he was an attentive listener and asked questions in all the right places. Even as Sephiroth struggled to hold back some things, the release was such a profound relief that he found even more words spilling out.

A more detached part of him criticized his weakness. This is what came of letting Cloud too close. More than the sex was the emotional connection, that when Cloud had cut him off abruptly left a gaping hole that Sephiroth would fill with anyone who would smile and nod. He had tried to forge a tentative connection with Angeal, but Genesis seemed to take affront at Sephiroth's very existence, and he was never completely comfortable with the pair and rarely ever alone with Angeal. Maybe Hojo was right. Human emotions and connections were a weakness, one that should be brutally excised if it could be manipulated this easily.

Eventually Reeve leaned back and laced his fingers together, tapping his chin lightly. "I must say, you've given me a lot to think about. Hard to believe time travel is actually possible."

Sephiroth blinked at him. "What?"

"You didn't know?" Reeve asked, looking momentarily surprised. "Of course you didn't; you would have mentioned it if you had. The wormhole. The nanomites. My mark. It's the only explanation that fits all of these things. Your Zack must have brought the nanomites from the future where I obviously had the time and resources to develop them. He came through the wormhole, probably at around the time of your visit given the really stringent quarantine policies."

"That-" That actually made some sense. Sephiroth was surprised to find that he was not as surprised as he expected he should have been. The pieces had been floating around, but the premise was so preposterous that he had been avoiding actually spelling it out. Even to himself. However, it did explain some of the odd comments made by both Cloud _and_ Zack. Wait. No, it didn't. "But the nanomites were clearly manufactured by ShinRa. In the recording I got from WolfHaven you-if that was you and if it was from the future, which I am not conceding—were part of a separate company. The WRO I think."

"Changes in our present resulted in an alternate future," Reeve said easily with a shrug. Sephiroth felt like he had missed a step. He was starting to really detest the way everyone around him had more of an idea of what was going on than he did…even if it was crazy. He glared stonily at Reeve who just smiled broadly. "You need to read more science fiction. Here let me explain…"

Reeve looked around, fingertips tapping along the open expanse of the empty desk before he pulled out a pad of paper and a pen from one of the drawers. The pad was unused and still wrapped in plastic, which was quickly disposed of. He drew a single line perfectly straight with one quick slash of the pen.

"Here we have the base timeline. The wormhole is opened at here." Reeve quickly labeled the line and a single point in simple block lettering. "The name is a little disingenuous. It isn't anything like a tunnel. So, at some point the wormhole opens, and at some other point in the future it closes. Now, at any point that the wormhole is open someone can enter it. They can go as far back as it has been opened and as far forward up to the point it closes.

"Now our hypothetical traveler enters the wormhole in the time line and goes back, say as far as they can." The second point was labeled and an arrow arced back to the first. "Now, it gets interesting. Do you know what time is?"

Sephiroth opened his mouth to answer, but found himself unable to articulate a clear answer. Reeve seemed to expect no less and continued on.

"Time is the distance between two events. So, a timeline is a series of events, but if something were to happen to change an event, then the timeline diverges." Reeve labeled a third point between the two points and drew a parallel line from the new point forward. "The original timeline contains the initial series of events while the second contains the alternate."

"So, the recording is from the original timeline where you broke from ShinRa, and the nanomites are from the alternate where you didn't?" Sephiroth asked, less to actually ask for clarification then to show that he was listening and understood it. His mind meanwhile was working furiously over everything he had heard and knew. The alternate timeline theory certainly explained part of what was going on between Zack and Cloud, but not how Sephiroth featured into- He really was an idiot. Nibelheim and Meteorfall, allegedly caused by him, hadn't _happened _yet.

"And I see that I've given you something to think about as well," Reeve said with a smile.

"Yes, I-" Sephiroth's words ground to a halt. He couldn't think, his brain kept on circling around trying to fit what he knew in light of this new information.

A small chime went off Tuesti picked up his PHS and flipped it open to examine the screen. "Damn, I need to deal with this," Reeve said standing. Sephiroth nodded and let the other man usher him out the door and to the elevator down the hall. "Oh, and Sephiroth. Company policy only prohibits relations between persons in the direct line of command. So far as ShinRa is concerned Cloud Strife has only ever been your acting commander in one mission with limited capacity."

With that Reeve closed the elevator doors, grumbling about how no one ever actually reads the Employee Handbook. Sephiroth was too surprised to stop him. After everything Sephiroth held his breath for a moment, waiting for that rush of dizzying emotion but all he felt was exhaustion, physical and mental exhaustion that fuzzed his brain and burned behind his eyes. He rested his forehead against the cool metal of the elevator door, listening the soft chimes as floors passed. Today had been far too long with far too many unexpected revelation for him to fully process everything. And it wasn't like he could actually do anything about when he didn't even know if what he felt for Cloud was real or something chemically induced as the means to an end for some alien virus.

With a clear-bell like tone that was obnoxiously loud in the silence, the doors slid open and Sephiroth made his way to his bunk. Once there it took a moment for him to register that he was not alone. The sudden rush of adrenaline momentarily pushed back the exhaustion.

"Veld," Sephiroth greeted the Turk lounging on the small office chair waiting for him. Recognizing the man did little to calm Sephiroth jangling nerves. "What can I help you with, sir?"

Being visited by Turks was never a good thing. Especially since they were the branch of Human Resources that handled SOLDIER, and if recruiting potentially dangerous people hadn't already earned them a name, the fact that they also informed aforementioned dangerous people, after they've been worked over into something even more deadly, that their services were no longer needed, gave them a reputation of fear and awe that was unparalleled by any other department. Finding one, even one who he had been on reasonably good terms with, after hours was more than a little unsettling.

"What did Director Tuesti want?" Veld asked without any preamble.

"Why?" Sephiroth asked in turn just as bluntly.

"We were alerted to a video blackout on the 66th Floor. Populated by only you and Tuesti. So, what did he want?"

Sephiroth weighed his options quickly but carefully. As a Turk, Veld's first loyalty was to the company, but given that he had taken Sephiroth's side last time maybe he would understand Sephiroth's caution this time as well. "He was doing me a favor. Looking into Angeal's…condition."

Sephiroth tried to be vague, not knowing how much Veld already knew. The Turk looked intrigued. "The nanomites. Is that why you've been arranging volunteer missions for his department?"

"Yes."

"Hm, I presume he got farther than Scarlet?"

"I can't say, I don't know what Scarlet found," Sephiroth answered carefully.

"Not much, since her sample disappeared. Heidegger has been questioning her lab's competency and blocking further access to Angeal." Sephiroth was fairly certain that he failed to keep a satisfied smirk off of his face. Veld gave him a narrow-eyed look, but choose not to press instead handed him a folded piece of paper. "I investigated WolfHaven and found this in their system. I thought you might be interested."

Sephiroth unfolded the paper, lost the non sequitur. The tear away holes for the printer feeds caught a moment before opening to reveal a printed out log for a mission assignment.

'WH Mission 342-x: Sephiroth, SOLDIER Operative 2nd Class profile  
WH Mission 342-1  
-Open 4/17 WHSYS.urd  
-Assigned 5/7 CSTRIFE  
-Update: on hold until further notice. 7/4 CSTRIFE  
-Suspended 7/4 CSTRIFE  
WH Mission 342-2  
-Open 7/12 WHSYS.urd  
-Assigned 7/12 ZFAIR'

It took a moment for it to sink in that he was looking at a kill order.


	17. Chapter 17

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 17

… … …

Sephiroth stared numbly at the damning scrap of paper in his hand, desperately searching for something to- The dates were off.

It was assigned to Cloud before he even came to ShinRa, unless Cloud came to ShinRa _because_ of this order. Did that mean that the entire joint venture between WolfHaven and ShinRa was nothing but a ruse to get WolfHaven operatives into ShinRa and close to their target? But the mission was suspended when Sephiroth asked Cloud to be his mentor. Why? Why would he suspend the mission when he had just been handed the perfect opportunity on a silver platter.

Sephiroth frowned at the paper. The fourth. What day was that? Wednesday? That wasn't the day Cloud took him out to the Train Graveyard. No, it was the day _after_, when he had gone to speak to Cloud in his hotel suite. Which confirmed his initial suspicions that Cloud really had been trying to kill him, but knowing it didn't lessen his confusion any and it just opened a whole host of new questions. And now, the mission had been reassigned. ZFAIR. Z, Zack probably, he already flat out stated that his intent was to kill Sephiroth.

There was something else that was tickling the edge of his memory, like the word at the tip his tongue. Assigned on July 12, that was right before the Mythril Mine operation when the president's son went missing… when Sephiroth visited WolfHaven. Did his actions prompt the reassignment of the mission? Sephiroth glanced over at the monitor on his desk. And there was something familiar about that name that hung just out of reach. Z Fair, Zack Fair…

Sephiroth was completely focused on the one small problem, the one whose solution was just a breath away, that he could only blame his next unthinking move on focused determination coupled with sheer exhaustion. Completely forgetting Veld's presence he turned on the computer, the data disk was still loaded, and started scanning through the recording as quickly as it would go. Stopping only when the name he was looking for was written on the whiteboard. Zack F.

"…the epitome of the SOLDIER program, and what most people think of when they think of SOLDIER. The treatments were chosen to capitalize on the subject's strengths and minimize their weaknesses. They fell into several broad categories with a primary focus on physical strength, Materia affinity, or endurance."

"What is this?" Veld demanded in a tone of voice that demanded answers now, and usually got them.

Sephiroth started, and looked over at Veld, who watched, not him but the recording avidly. _Stupid_, Sephiroth snarled at himself. _Tired and sloppy. Too focused on the question at hand to wait. _ "A disk from WolfHaven. It's a lecture on the SOLDIER program." But then, maybe a part of him subconsciously wanted to share these secrets after the release of discussing them with Reeve.

"Many of you might remember Zack Fair." Dessau pointed the remote at the screen and it turned to a picture of a young Zack. The background height scale indicated that this was probably an official picture for an ID or file, but the teenager was grinning like the president at a press release. Sephiroth sat back feeling triumphant. There, Zack Fair. So he really was from Cloud's timeline after all. "He exemplifies the second generation SOLDIER, created at the height of ShinRa in the years before Meteorfall.

"Contrary to what many people assume, given Zack's proficiency with the heavy great swords like the Buster Sword, he is not a strength based SOLDIER, but endurance. His system was built towards energy efficiency; he could go longer on less. Even when compared to others from his own sub set, the downside of this was an excess amount of energy that needed to be burned, and a compulsion to move to keep too much of the energy from being stored as fat."

"W-w-w-wait, wait," the camera swung around to the audience to point at the red-headed Turk, who seemed to refuse to let go of the microphone once it had been placed in his hands. "You mean to tell me that it's Hojo's fault that Zack was an annoying, hyperactive twit?"

"Well," Profess Dessau hedged and the camera swung back to the stage. Sephiroth could see Veld frowning at the monitor from the corner of his eye. "The treatments don't change the underlying personality traits, but I understand that after his induction into Third Class the Science Department instilled more rigorous personality profiling before assigning candidates to a particular set."

"Go back," Veld ordered softly.

"What?" Sephiroth asked, startled.

"Go back to the crowd," Veld said. His voice was tight with emotions that Sephiroth couldn't place, but he did as asked.

"…hyperactive twit?"

"Stop." Sephiroth paused the recording as the camera view was passing over the crowd back to the stage. It was frozen with Cloud on the monitor screen, watching the proceedings with a detached, emotionless expression.

"Cloud is-"

"Not Cloud," Veld said. "The other man. Vincent Valentine, my old partner."

Sephiroth looked back to the screen. There was another man seated to Cloud's right, a man dressed roughly in a tattered red cape. Mercenary was the first thing Sephiroth thought of looking at the way the man held himself. Even at ease, the massive three-barrel gun was tucked not very subtly into his belt. He was as far from the clean corporate look of the Turks as it was possible to get, although there was a sleek line to the body and whipcord muscles that was the favored body-type for that Department.

It was difficult to judge the man's age. He looked to be in his mid twenties, but something about him, a shadow in his red eyes made Sephiroth want to push the age upwards, thirty maybe. Although if he was Veld's partner, that would make him Veld's contemporary, which shot Reeve's theory of the recording, and Cloud and Zack, being from the future all to pieces.

"Can I speak to him?" Sephiroth asked. There were a few questions he wanted to ask the man, about Nibelheim and Meteorfall and Jenova. Maybe if he could find someone who had attended the lecture who wasn't tied up with Cloud and WolfHaven he could get some reliable answers.

"No," Veld said bluntly.

Sephiroth waited for some further explanation, but the man simply sat and stared at the monitor. Finally Sephiroth pressed, "Why?"

"He was reported as dead fifteen years ago," Veld said heavily.

Sephiroth frowned, the way Veld said that made it sound like there was room for doubt. "Reported?"

"The body was never recovered." Veld pointed at the screen. "He looks almost exactly like he did the last time I saw him. Except for his hair, given average growth rate," Veld frowned at the screen. "This would have had to have been made at least three years after his supposed death."

That made even less sense. Sephiroth rubbed his eye. He was getting a headache trying to figure out when this video had been made. He wanted to find whatever idiot deleted the date and time stamp and…

"May I borrow this?" Veld asked.

"Will I get it back?" It wasn't technically Sephiroth's, but he had stolen it through sheer bravado and dumb luck, and he was hesitant to let it go before he had figured out the recording's secrets. The fact that he had it for over two months and had yet to sit through the entire thing start to finish completely notwithstanding.

"Of course," Veld assured him. Veld was probably lying, but Sephiroth really couldn't see a way around it, it really was stupid to draw the Turk's attention to the video in the first place. Sephiroth nodded and ejected the data disk from the computer. Veld pocketed it, tucking it away in the inner pocket of his suit jacket. "I also wanted to let you know that I have a mission for you. Another mining operation out in the West Nibel range."

"Illegal Materia mining?" Sephiroth asked. He felt a rush of eagerness with equal parts panic. He'd had more experience both leading and organizing troops with Reeve's volunteer project, but this would be official. The result of screwing up _again,_ only on record this time, would devastate his chance for a meaningful promotion to a command position.

"I don't think so. The Materia springs tend more towards the eastern end of the range. But there are indications of child labor violations that I want to be looked into. Major Clarkson will be in charge of the platoon," Veld said, Sephiroth wasn't sure if he should be relieved or insulted. "But I would like you there as support, there's rumors of some very dangerous monsters in the area."

"Yes, sir," Sephiroth said.

"Good," Veld said. "The details are in your mission queue. This takes priority over everything else. This mission is also classified. You are not to speak to anyone of the mission who has not already been given clearance except as on a need to know basis."

Sephiroth nodded, though he was puzzled, the mission didn't seem like it was important enough to ShinRa that it should be classified. "Why?"

"We need to minimize potential retribution against the kids," Veld said, looking old and tired as he said it. After seeing the miners herding the mutated children, the living proof of their illegal activities, into the swamp, Sephiroth was more than willing to trust Veld's judgment on the matter. Veld stood up and rolled the chair away from the door. "If you have any other question you can email them to Major Clarkson. His PHS link is in your Mission Briefing file."

"Thank you, sir. I will," Sephiroth said. He stood and shook Veld's hand. A moment later Veld was gone.

…. … …

The mission was nothing like the Mythril Mine. Which was good. Somehow Hojo had gotten word of the mission and had called dibs on any "recovered specimens." The West Nibel Mines were less horrifying in that respect, but more so in others. They apparently had a habit of signing an advance to the children's families and then neglecting to pay their regular wages after the first month. Crates of paperwork and signed affidavits had already been sent to Legal to work out the fines and exactly which anti-slavery laws were being broken.

While their contracts were in dispute the children had to be relocated to the nearest authorities, which landed them in Nibelheim, unloading forty children onto the unprepared shoulders of whatever passed for social services around here. At least that was what the troopers were doing. Once the children got a good look at Sephiroth, unlike the Mythril Mine rescuees, they panicked, upset at his alien eyes and unnatural strength, and in general made things more difficult to keep them under control. Sephiroth, equally uncomfortable near the children, spent most of the time as far away from the convoy yet still close enough to be useful, just in case. Now he was exiled out of sight to the inn while the rest of the troop finished tidying up loose ends.

Sephiroth stared out the second story window on to the main square of the small village. It wasn't terribly interesting, a wide cobblestone courtyard surrounding a water tower, but something about it seemed eerily familiar. Something he knew he'd seen before, but not quite right. The trouble was he couldn't put his finger on the exact memory. And since he didn't have many places he had been outside of the lab or missions, it was quite aggravating. Maybe it was the WolfHaven recording with its obscure references to a Nibelheim event that his brain kept trying to make connections where there weren't any.

Sephiroth's PHS rang, he answered with an absent greeting without tearing his eyes away from the window.

"Kids are off of our hands," the gruff voice on the other end of the line informed him. "We're departing at 1800 hours."

"I will be right there," Sephiroth said, ignoring the breach of etiquette of hanging up on a higher ranked officer. He was tired, and frustrated, and right then he just didn't care. He made his way downstairs and out the door. The town square was surprisingly empty. He'd had some expectation that in most small towns the square was some kind of marketplace or primary gathering place for the civilians for gossip and whatever else civilians did. He turned and surveyed the rooflines of the surrounding buildings that huddled around the square. If he had been here before, seen this place before, it would be from one of these buildings. Behind the inn Sephiroth could see large rambling mansion perched on a ridge. _There perhaps?_

With a sigh he turned toward the town gates. It was something to keep in mind for the future. The sharp sound of flesh striking flesh followed by a dull thud brought Sephiroth's attention immediately into the present. He reached up and curled his fingers around the broadsword's hilt, but did not draw it. He followed the sound to an unpaved alley between two buildings, his pace quickening as he registered the voices of angry children. After all the exploitation and horrors he had seen in the past couple of months involving kids he immediately prepared for the worse, which still didn't prepare him for what he did find.

There were three children, none of them could have been older than eight, were surrounding another huddled form. Yelling angrily and kicking savagely. The fourth child, of which Sephiroth could only see a tuft of blond hair sticking out between protectively curled limbs, grunted in pain as the breath was expelled from his chest, but he didn't cry or call for help.

"Hey!" Sephiroth yelled, he knew that the primary language here was not the same one that was spoken in Midgar so the likelihood of the children understanding any words was fairly slim, but no one would be able to miss the anger and force the he put behind that one word.

Sure enough, the three bullies stopped and looked up at him, they didn't appear frightened. Yet. Sephiroth had released his sword and lowered his hand, but as he strode forward the aura of menace he projected should have been no less threatening.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked still projecting his anger, and exaggerating his expression as well by frowning and lowering his eyebrows.

They shifted uncomfortably but didn't object when he reached between them and pulled their target away. He easily dragged the small child up by one arm. Now the small boy yelped and stared up at him with large sky-blue eyes, a particular shade Sephiroth had only previously ever seen lit with Mako.

Sephiroth glanced up at the other three. "Go. Home."

They stared at him. Then one of the older (or perhaps just larger) children's face twisted into a snarl. He spat on the ground and said something in a harsh, guttural language that Sephiroth presumed was the local dialect. The blond child he had just rescued pulled himself from Sephiroth's loosened grip and launched himself at the older children with a shriek.

All of them froze for a moment, Sephiroth included; the action was just so unexpected. He recovered first, quickly grabbing the kid by the back of the shirt and lifting him up. The kid's arms and legs continued windmilling as he yelled and screamed.

Now the bullies fled, with Sephiroth's grip being the only thing between them and a five-year-old's vengeance. The kid didn't stop. His tormentors out of the line of fire the kid turned on Sephiroth clawing and screaming at the arm that held him.

_Tenacious little brat, _Sephiroth thought. He was not entirely sure whether that thought was joined by a swelling of affection or irritation. Sephiroth dropped the kid. Unprepared for the sudden release the kid tumbled to the ground. He stared up at Sephiroth with his mouth gaping open, gulping deep breaths of air.

"_Vo es du?_"

Sephiroth hesitated a moment before deciding that the child must be asking his name. "I am Sephiroth."

The child blinked and tilted his head to the side. "Midvolk? Are you ShinRa?"

"Yes," Sephiroth agreed, both relieved and surprised that the boy could understand him. "You speak the dialect?"

The blond head bobbed in confirmation, a yellow shock hair falling into the boy's eyes. "Vater vas Midvolk. He and Mama sprach- speak both. I'm…"

"Get away from him!" An angry voice demanded. This time Sephiroth didn't hesitate drawing his sword before turning to face the new-comer.

"What happened to you?" Sephiroth asked, the shocked words spilling out before he could check himself at the sight of a disheveled Zack. For a First Class on par with Cloud he had definitely seen better days. Zack grimaced and rubbed a thumb absently across fresh claw marks on his shoulder that had only just scabbed over. The shallow cut opened and fresh blood smeared.

"Minor disagreement with an old friend," Zack said. He looked at the kid. "Go home, your Mom's worried about you."

"But-" The kid protested the order but wasn't unsurprised at Zack's presence. He had to have been here for some time to be familiar with the locals; insular as they seemed to be.

"Now, Cloud!" Zack snapped. The boy scrambled to his feet and ran off.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked bringing Zack's attention back to himself.

"Yeah, it's the kid's name," Zack said, sounding a little defensive on the child's behalf.

"Must be common in this area," Sephiroth commented. He watched Zack warily waiting for the man's next move. For someone who has express orders to kill him Zack seemed surprisingly slow to do so.

Zack just shrugged. "Speaking of, have you spoken to our Cloud."

"About what?"

"What do you mean about what? About…about…" Zack sputtered.

"About time travel?" Sephiroth asked, taking a gamble.

Zack grinned at him. "So, you _did _talk-"

"No." Sephiroth kept his expression fixed and neutral even though he wanted nothing more than to start peppering the other man with questions. So, if Reeve had been right about the time travel, what did that mean for Veld's partner?

"B-But, how?" Zack stammered, looking lost. "_Why _not?"

"Because _he's_ not talking to _me_," Sephiroth snapped back. "He'll-" Sephiroth cut himself off. He didn't want to discuss his relationship or whatever it was with Zack of all people. Speaking of which, he wondered if Zack was going to try to attack him here. Not that he was eager for a fight. They were in a populated area, small compared to Midgar, but a fight here the collateral damage would mean heavy loss of civilian life. "What do you want?"

Zack carded one hand roughly through his hair, looking a little sheepish. "Well, ah, I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I just saw you with Cloud there and just, ya know, reacted."

Sephiroth tilted his head to the side and asked, "Why?"

"'Why?' he asks," Zack scoffed. After a moment his dark expression cleared and he gave Sephiroth a sober look. "You really have no idea what you did to that kid."

"No, I really have no idea what you are talking about," Sephiroth said with an uneasy feeling growing in his stomach.

"Oh, fuck me, Odin and Sleipnir," Zack muttered, rubbing the palm of his hand over his face before ruffling it through his own hair again. A nervous tick, Sephiroth surmised. "Okay, so… you know about the time travel?"

"I figured some of that out, yes," Sephiroth said dryly.

"Yeah, right. After the shit hit the fan, _again_," Zack said sounding bitter. "After you killed Cloud in the Temple-"

"Why would I do that?" Sephiroth asked.

"Because you were trying to kill Aerith and he was in your way, because you were trying to destroy the world and he promised to stop you, because you resented him for dumping you after Icicle Inn. I don't know there was like a million reasons, pick one."

Sephiroth felt himself flush. "You know about Icicle Inn?"

"Yeah, he told me," Zack gave Sephiroth a measured look. "He told me he regretted it. After knowing what you became, that all he did was leave more scars to bleed when you finally broke."

Sephiroth didn't bother to hide the flinch. The pain in his chest taking his breath away even as he knew it had to be a lie.

"You decided that since that Cloud was a disappointment and dead, you were going to get yourself a new one." Zack paused and nodded his head over in the direction the blond child had run off in. Cloud.

"That was-"

"Yeah."

Sephiroth felt an intense loathing at Zack's implications. "I would never-"

"You did. Oh, believe me you did." Zack shuddered. "And seeing you standing over that boy, over Cloud. It was like Nibelheim all over again. I tried talking to Cloud, but well, you know how he gets. I don't know why he keeps trying. You can't change and he's just going to watch everything burn again."

"You don't know anything," Sephiroth snapped suddenly angry at Zack's pessimistic premonitions. He believed that he had the will and the choice for another path. He had to or he really would go insane. "Not about me, and not about Cloud."

"Please," Zack said with dismissive huff. "I know him better then you do. We spent years working together to keep you and Hojo from poisoning the Planet; one long campaign after another, from Wutai to the Eastern Steppes. I know his quirks and faults. I know how he cares probably more then he should. How he withdraws when he's scared or worried, and how you can tell how bad things were getting by the size of the stick shoved up his ass.

"Over time he told me everything from his version of history. I know about how he originally joined ShinRa and was on track for SOLDIER when he was pulled for an emergency mission to Nibelheim. He told me how you went mad and razed the village to the ground; how you killed his mother, gutted the Zack Fair of his time, how you wouldn't have stopped if he hadn't stopped you first."

"He killed me," Sephiroth said as a dawning certainty crept over him. Zack nodded.

"And, of course, I know you," Zack said. He lifted the hem of his black SOLDIER uniform to bare a well defined tanned abdomen. His fingers traced a white scar. It was older then Cloud's but the dimensions and the placement were the same. Sephiroth knew with a sinking certainty that if he looked there would be a matching exit wound on the man's back, just like Cloud's. The wound might have been fatal once upon a time, but with Cure to mend torn tissue and Esuna to prevent infection and disease gut wounds like that were only inflicted for the sake of pain and torture. Zack smiled, a twisted, unhappy grimace. "I know exactly what you are capable of. And so does Cloud. That is why you have to be stopped."

Sephiroth looked up into Zack's blue eyes as the man tugged his shirt back down over the scar. "But you are not going to kill me are you?" Zach looked away and Sephiroth knew that he hit on something about the man's psyche. If the man truly believed everything he said he wouldn't bother with these games, he wouldn't try talking to Sephiroth unless he wanted something. "Why are you even telling me these things? You want me to understand. Why? Do you think that I would just lie down and let you kill me? That I would forgive you because you had to?" Zack flinched, and Sephiroth knew that was it.

"You were my friend too, once," Zack said softly, almost too softly to hear. He turned away from Sephirth. "Just forget it. Look, could you tell Cloud that Aerith wants to see him?"

"Why don't you just tell him yourself?" Sephiroth asked sullenly.

"Because he's not talking to me either." Zack glanced back over his shoulder. "But even if he's mad at me, he should talk to her. She'll be at the usual place."

And with that cryptic remark Zack was gone, walking away before Sephiroth could respond. Sephiroth stared after the other man for a moment, and then wanted to kick himself. Zack was his only connection to the nanomites and the cure for Genesis' degradation. How was he supposed to get the cure now?

Sephiroth jumped as his PHS buzzed with a text message. _Where the hell are you? _ He sighed and started trudging back towards the town entrance and the platoon.

… … …

The answer was elegantly simple. Sephiroth had almost forgotten about Zack's odd request, he had been so tied up in the rest of the conversation. Sephiroth would have himself convinced of time travel one moment, then tearing it down the next. Once he remembered the message he was somewhat inclined not to pass it on simply because it was a request from Zack, then he realized that he may be able to follow Cloud to-Aerith was it?-and follow Aerith to Zack and to Genesis' cure.

As such things were, it was easier said than done.

Sephiroth checked out a light scouting vehicle from the parking garage after digging out a ShinRa issue helmet from his locker that the supply officer insisted he have, even though he had long since quit wearing them. He synced up the helmet systems with his PHS, blinking at the menu that floated semi transparent in his lower field of vision. It took a moment to pull up the map function and locate Cloud.

"I spoke with Zack," Sephiroth announce without preamble when Cloud's PHS was answered.

There was a long silence. "Are you okay?"

"He had a message for you," Sephiroth said bruskly, stamping down on the irrational surge of happiness at Cloud's concern.

"I don't-"

"He said that you should speak with Aerith." Sephiroth almost held his breath waiting for Cloud's response.

"Aerith?" Cloud's voice sounded weak and breathless. Sephiroth felt an immediate dislike for the girl who could do that to Cloud. He wondered if this emotion was real or if it could also be manipulated by the virus also.

"Yes, Zack said she would be at the usual place."

The line went dead. Sephiroth was not surprised to see the small dot that indicated Cloud moving towards the parking garage and his bike, Fenrir. He tucked away his PHS and started his bike. The scouting vehicles were built to run silently through enemy territory, even to Sephiroth's enhanced hearing the engine was gentle hum, they were blocked from radar and most scan spells. The downside was that the field also blocked any calls coming in to his PHS, but as long as it allowed him to track Cloud without being caught then Sephiroth was willing to take whatever flak came down for falling off the grid for a few hours.

Cloud shot past on Fenrir with its engine roaring loudly, chrome flashing in the setting sun. Sephiroth followed. The gap between them gradually widening proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cloud finally perfected his Materia matrix on the bike. Sephiroth didn't worry too much. He followed on parallel side roads, his agile scout easily cutting through tight alleys, with one eye on the road and one on the map tracking Cloud's location.

Sephiroth almost got caught on the interchange before the ramp heading under plate. The traffic forcing him closer to Cloud then he would have liked, but also blocking him from direct view. Once on the ramp the traffic thinned considerably. Sephiroth hung back further as they headed down into the Sector Five slums.

Like Sector Seven, the buildings of Sector Five were mostly constructed of repurposed building materials held together with a rusty nail and a prayer. Few were higher then two stories simply because the base materials couldn't bear the weight. High above the dark underside of the plate blocked the sky. A few weak streetlights lit the broken blacktop and pounded dirt that made up the streets and alleys underplate.

The map Sephiroth's PHS downloaded from ShinRa was incomplete, and in some cases just wrong. In trying to shadow Cloud on parallel streets as he did above he ended up falling further and further behind as he had to backtrack from unexpected dead ends, and one unexpected fight as what had appeared to be a small shed had lumbered up onto four feet and launched a _rocket_ at him.

Eventually Sephiroth made his way to an old church that had Fenrir parked in front like a guard dog. It was one of the few buildings that was not listing haphazardly, although it had obviously seen better days. It looked vaguely familiar, but then it followed the same gothic architecture favored by several religions across both continents. According to his PHS Cloud was inside with three other people. Presumably, at least one of them was the mysterious Aerith but he was not able to glean much information. Their PHSs must not be registered with ShinRa. If he wanted more information he would have to tap their PHSs directly and that would send up an alarm.

Sephiroth parked his scout behind a nearby pile of debris, after checking that none of the nearby buildings were going to attack him. He left the engine humming to keep the masking field up and settled in to wait.

… … …

AN: The Nibelheim dialect, while strongly based on what I know of German is not actually German and has some significant departures, though I still wanted to keep with the over-all sound of the language. I'm just putting this disclaimer in to pre-empt anyone thinking I accidentally used a bad translator. Nothing accidental about it; I did it deliberately.

I also put up another meta file, this one Shinra Military and Company Structure. Please check my profile for links if you are interested.


	18. Chapter 18

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 18

… … …

One thing that they didn't neglect to mention, but somehow never quite sank in, was how boring stake outs were. Evening gave way to night, though there was little change in this part of the slums. The ambient light that crept in from around the edges of the plate disappeared but was not replaced by the bright artificial lights common in more built up areas. Sephiroth had resorted to playing digital card games on his PHS while waiting for any movement from inside the church.

Cloud still hadn't left, neither had any of the other three. Sephiroth snapped his PHS shut impatiently. If no one was leaving he was going to go and take a look around. He hung his helmet on one of the handlebars and tucked his PHS into a small lockbox welded to the frame. He locked the wheels and tucked that key into a pocket so he could leave the bike running without worrying about someone taking off with it.

Sephiroth crept through the gloom. He skirted around the pool of yellow light created by a bent street lamp that illuminated the steps in front of the church. Going through the front door would most likely be counterproductive, so Sephiroth slid down the narrow crevice between the church and its neighbor.

Towards the back of the building there was a short flight of stairs leading up to a small steel door that was obviously not original to the building and hung on crooked hinges. Sephiroth carefully eased the door open and crept inside. He found himself in a short hallway with an open archway to his right and stairs leading up to his left. Straight ahead there were doorways leading, presumably, to offices or ready rooms.

He peeked into the main part of the church, Cloud and a young woman with long brown hair in a summer dress and hiking boots sat on rotting floorboards while Zack lounged on a nearby pew. The woman, Sephiroth noted jealously, was latched on to Cloud's arm, and he would occasionally reach out with his other hand to gently touch her hand, arm or face. Cloud looked more relaxed then Sephiroth had seen him since Icicle Inn, an open expression of wonder on his face.

The woman, Aerith, reached out to stroke along the closed petal of one of the nearby flowers. Under her gentle coaxing it slowly unfurled, turning towards the young woman as if she were the sun. Sephiroth gaped in shock as he recognized the flowers and realized that he _had_ seen this church before. In Cloud's simulation.

The broken city had been Midgar.

With a soft gasp of denial, Sephiroth stepped away from the arch into the safety of the hallway. There was a soft click of a gun being deliberately cocked. "Don't move."

Sephiroth obediently froze, silently berating himself for forgetting about the third unknown person. With sharp deliberate clicks of dress shoes on hardwood the man walked around to face Sephiroth. The man perfectly matched his smooth, cold voice. Strong Wusheng features were unexpected given the complete lack of accent. Long dark hair was pulled back into a tail with few escaping wisps across his forehead and nape of his neck. He wore the smartly tailored suit like a Turk, and held the gun with practiced confidence.

"What are you doing here, Sephiroth?" he demanded.

In the space of a heartbeat Sephiroth examined and discarded a dozen lies. The man must have been either a WolfHaven employee or someone from the future, a future. From Zack's future? In any case the fact that Sephiroth wasn't shot on principle spoke well for his chances. "I'm looking for the cure for degradation for Genesis. I have reason to believe that Zack Fair either has it or is able to procure it."

The gunman gave him a long, hard stare with inscrutable black eyes, before tilting his chin up. The gun didn't waver, definitely a Turk. "Second door on the left."

Hoping that this meant that the man was directing him to the cure rather than an out of the way place for his summary execution, Sephiroth strode down the hall to the indicated door. His hands were clenched tightly to keep from shaking with the mix of hope and fear that threatened to choke him. The room inside was little larger than his own bunk with a large table covered with a dismantled gun and a bomb kit similar to Cloud's laid out in an orderly fashion.

"Get the case under the table," The man ordered from the doorway. Hesitating a moment, Sephiroth glanced back at the gunman. The man's expression remained flat and with little affectation. Sephiroth pulled out the heavy security case from under the table. It was secured with a combination lock. "Five-four-four-two."

Sephiroth entered in the combination, marveling at the man that could give Cloud a run for his money on terseness. The case shimmered as the Wall around it dissipated. Inside the case was dark foam with cutouts for two syringes. One cutout was empty. Hardly daring to believe that it was this simple, Sephiroth picked up the remaining syringe. It was filled with shining green Mako. He frowned at it. So, does the cure rely on the Jenova virus or doesn't it?

"That is the cure for Genesis' degradation," the gunman said. As if it wasn't obvious.

"The Mako," Sephiroth said. "Doesn't the Jenova virus exacerbate the mutation?"

"It's clean," the other man said. "The Mako is needed to power the nanomites until they can be injected."

Which meant the nanomites can only work with SOLDIERs. Sephiroth pocketed the syringe and turned to the other man. The gun was gone; Sephiroth couldn't even spot the usual tell-tale bulge over the concealed weapon. "Why are you helping me?"

The man raised a single eyebrow questioningly. "Who said I was helping you?"

"That you didn't shoot me on sight says volumes."

"That's Zack's job," the man said, crossing his arms and leaning casually against the doorframe.

If healing Angeal and Genesis was this man's assignment, "Then why was Zack the one to give Angeal the cure?"

The man shrugged. "I am not adverse to having someone else do my work for me."

Sephiroth nodded. "Thank you." Neither of them moved, studying each other across the short distance. "Can I go now?"

The other man silently stepped back with a small smirk, one hand gesturing for Sephiroth to pass. Sephiroth brushed past him and back down the way they came. He could feel the itch between his shoulder blades of someone watching him and knew that if he turning around the strange Turk would be studying him as he walked away.

Though he was unable to catch another glimpse of Cloud as he left, Sephiroth checked his PHS when he got back to his bike and found that Cloud was still inside with the others. He wondered if the Turk would tell them that he was there. Sephiroth shrugged to himself. At this point it didn't matter, he got what he wanted.

Sephiroth checked his map for the most direct route back to ShinRa and took off for the nearest ramp, foregoing the helmet for the trip back. His route had him head into Sector Six and cut directly through Wall Market, which was in full swing by this time of night. Colorful neon signs, strings of lanterns and battered but still functioning streetlights lit up the streets as bright as daylight above the plate. The crowd was thick and Sephiroth had to slow to a crawl to guide the bike through the pedestrians that filled the streets with the loud cacophony of bartering, laughing, arguing; of life. The familiar sound of a shrill voice shouting obscenities in Wusheng caught his attention.

The woman screaming invectives at a harried man, who was scooping semi-fresh gysahl greens into a handcart, was dressed in a full blown Wusheng geisha costume from her black lacquered sandals and white socks to her brightly painted face and elaborate pins in her hair. Only he had previously been under the impression that traditional geisha did not wear their elaborate kimono with the hem stopping short at mid-thigh.

"Yuffie?" Sephiroth asked as he rolled to a stop. There weren't that many people he knew that spoke fluent Wusheng. He almost didn't recognize the exuberant ninja, almost. The blinding smile and bounce in her step as she made her way towards him was pure Yuffie. "What are you doing here?"

"Working," she answered promptly with a cheerful smile.

"I see," Sephiroth said carefully. It only took a moment for her to work through the possible implications and swat at him with a folded fan. He tensed momentarily, the blow was more sound then force and no actual attack followed.

"Not like that, you jerk," she yelled at him.

"Of course not," he agreed readily. She scowled at him a moment longer before bursting into bright cheery laughter. The shrill tone in her voice wasn't as grating when she was in a genuinely good mood. He relaxed, resettling himself on the bike.

"So, what are _you_ doing here?" Yuffie asked, her voice rife with innuendo, one hand resting on a jutted out hip that added curves to her long, lean lines.

_Spying on Cloud. _"Just passing through," Sephiroth said. "Does Cloud know you're here?"

It was intended as an innocent question, a bit of small talk on some common ground until he could make his excuses and get back to ShinRa. The way she froze up and gave a nervous titter was anything but. Her embarrassed shuffling didn't last long. Her chin jutted out and she stared at him with defiant black eyes. "And so what if he doesn't? I don't need a babysitter."

"I never said-"

"And, yeah, maybe our last informant was found dead with his tongue cut out, and maybe…." Sephiroth could only stare at her in schock. "…And I think I'm going to shut up now."

"You really should have backup," Sephiroth said, trying to be tactful.

"I really don't need a babysitter," she sniped back.

"Not a babysitter, just someone to help in case something goes wrong." He wondered if she would pull this with Cloud. Cloud would insist on another agent on point with her _and_ back up on remote feed, _after_ the place had been thoroughly cased with all entrances and movements tracked and noted.

"AKA a babysitter."

This was so very much not his problem. Yuffie wasn't _his_ friend. Hell, she was probably in on the kill order. "I'm calling Cloud."

"No, no, no. Please!" She latched onto his arm that was fishing for his PHS in his pocket. "Don't, don't bother Cloud."

He gave her a suspicious look. "Why not?"

"B-b-because he's… meeting an old friend," she stammered out after searching for the words to say. Sephiroth wondered what this Aerith was to Cloud.

He gave Yuffie a long measured look. Cloud would not be happy if she turned up dead. "Fine, but I'm going in with you." They _had_ cancelled the kill order; it wasn't their fault that WolfHaven reinstated it.

Yuffie stared at him for a moment like he had grown an extra head or sprouted wings. Then she started giggling. The giggles turned into gales of laughter, and she had to clutch his arm to hold herself upright. Slightly disgruntled at her response, Sephiroth glared down at the top of her head. Eventually she calmed down, wheezing slightly and out of breath. "You can't."

"Either I go in with you or I call Cloud. Your choice," Sephiroth said stubbornly.

"Okay, but you can't go dressed like that," Yuffie said, still giggling. He eyed her suspiciously as she grinned brightly at him. "And I know just the place."

Still latched onto his arm she dragged him forward, heedless of the fact that he was still straddling the bike. Sephiroth was just unbalanced enough that she almost succeeded. Yuffie was surprisingly strong for such a petite thing. While feeling suddenly uncertain at her easy acceptance, Sephiroth dismounted and walked the bike as she led him through the busy streets. "Where are we going?"

"This is going to be so cool!" Yuffie babbled at him. "I always miss the fun, black mail-able stuff. And I am totally getting pictures and Aerith is just going to turn green. Fortunately, we don't need to do anything for your hair, 'cause the gym isn't there yet, ya know? But the other stuff, we can get the other stuff- Here we are!"

Here was in front of a tailor's shop, the window was filled with evening gowns of surprising quality and cost for under the plate. On a table in front of the store was an array of ribbons, bows and other accessories made from scrap fabric. Starting to get a bad feeling about this he locked the bike and followed Yuffie inside.

The place was fairly dark, lit mostly by softly glowing lanterns placed strategically around the room. The brightest spot was behind a large L-shaped counter that doubled as a work table. A young man was adjusting lengths of cream fabric around a wicker model. Yuffie stalked right up to the counter and dinged impatiently at the bell beside the register, even though the young man was already turning away from his work to face her.

"Can I help you?" He asked, blinking owlishly at them from behind a pair of wireframe glasses.

"Yeah, I need a dress for my friend here," she declared, waving at Sephiroth.

"What?" both Sephiroth and the tailor asked in unison. Sephiroth grabbed Yuffie by the back of her collar and dragged her backwards.

"Yuffie, can I have a word with you?" It was not a question.

"Sure, but, ow-hey! Leggo!"

He pinned her against the bolts of cloth that lined the walls. She stumbled and hit a little harder than he had intended. She wasn't hurt, but the breath was knocked out of her. He wasn't going to apologize. "What are doing?"

"Getting you a dress, obviously," she said.

"Obviously," he repeated, dryly. "Why?"

"Corneo doesn't let guys in the mansion. Even his own guys don't have full access to the back rooms," she said like she was imparting some great secret.

"So?"

"So-o-o, he does let women in. He chooses one from three every night to take in the back, you know, where no one else can go, where he stashes all the good stuff."

"Where you are hoping to find the information he stole from WolfHaven," Sephiroth finished. She went unnaturally still.

"How did you know about that?"

"It wasn't hard to figure out. I knew you've been after this guy for awhile, and WolfHaven is billed as an independent think tank. Information and ideas are their stock and trade. What else could it be?" He said with a shrug. It wasn't too far from the truth, and he was curious to see how she would react. Was she still as willing as before to spill Cloud's, and WolfHaven's, secrets?

She almost looked disappointed. "Right. What else could it be?"

"Unless you have something else you would like to share?" He asked pointedly.

"No!" she squeaked.

"I see," he said, wondering what had changed to make her so secretive now. "What does that have to do with putting me…no."

Her painted lips stretched into a wicked grin. "You want in; you wear the dress."

"Or I could just call Cloud."

"Really? And what are going to say when he asks what you were doing here? Aerith's church isn't far from here. You going to tell him you were spying on his little get together?" He scowled at her. She was right, he had no reason to be in this area. Not unless he had followed Cloud here. "Or you could just go home. This is a WolfHaven mission that has nothing to do with you."

Even as she spoke Sephiroth realized that it wasn't entirely true. Reeve had no real proof, Cloud wasn't talking, Yuffie would lie, and Zack was unreliable. However, Corneo would have independent information from WolfHaven that might confirm the time travel theory, or offer up an alternative explanation, but only if he could get to the man before Yuffie. "Fine."

"I mean it's no- wait, what?" she gaped at him in surprise.

"Fine, I'll wear the dress." She actually squealed. And bounced. The piercing sound cut right through his skull. "Just don't do that, and if anyone hears of this, ever, I will skewer you and-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Been there, done that." She grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the counter. He frowned at her. Was there anyone his (hypothetically) future self hadn't tried to eviscerate? No wonder everyone wanted him dead. If it was true, he still couldn't believe that it was possible for him, in any state, to do the things that Zack claimed. "Okay, he needs a dress."

The tailor looked up for his work and frowned. "Miss, I don't know what kind of a game you are playing, but your humor is not appreciated. Please, take you-"

"No, no, no. Just hear me out, please?" Yuffie begged, draping herself across the counter. Sephiroth left her to talk the young man into this insane scheme of hers and wandered aimlessly through the rest of the store. Beside the bolts of fabrics lining the walls there were racks of pre-made dresses. His first thought why she didn't just get a dress off the rack was quickly dispelled as he realized that all the dresses were either too small or depended on certain features he just didn't have. In many cases both. "Hey, Seph! Get over here!"

Sephiroth tensed in irritation. He seriously considered not answering her, but the thought that she might come up with worse nicknames, forced him to back towards the front of the store. "What?" He asked irritably.

The tailor was suitably cowed. Yuffie just grinned at him and asked in a babyish tone of voice. "Well, who's Mister Grumpy-pants?"

That really did not deserve an answer. He ignored Yuffie in favor for the tailor. "Well?"

He held up a tape measure and swallowed loudly. "Measurements."

"Very well," he said. Yuffie snickered as the tailor scurried out from behind the counter, with the tape measure trailing behind. Though he was nervous once the young man got into the familiar task of measuring he gained confidence and maneuvered Sephiroth with a firm hand like he was a living doll. Sephiroth didn't really care for the feeling. It reminded him too much of the labs where Hojo and his assistants would treat him much the same, but he bit back a snarl.

"The purple doesn't do anything for you skin. Pastels would work best-"

"Black," Yuffie said firmly.

"Strong colors may wash him out," the tailor said. His voice gained more confidence now that he was on more familiar ground.

"Black," she repeated. Sephiroth didn't have any idea what they were talking about, so he watched the byplay with some interest.

"Dove?"

"Black."

"Fine, Black." The tailor threw up his hands dramatically. "Cotton jersey, satin, chiffon, faille, crepe or silk? Not you. Him. He's the one wearing it."

Sephiroth blinked at the young man. He didn't recognize most of the terms that were just thrown at him. At Sephiroth's blank look the tailor gave an explosive sigh and ran his fingers through his short hair, mussing the previously neat locks. When he realized what he had just done the young man looked even more irritated.

"I thought you were in a hurry. Do you prefer the cloth clean or soft?"

"Both?" Sephiroth asked, not really understanding the distinction.

"No, no, no. One or the other. Clean or soft?"

"Soft?" Sephiroth guessed. Deciding it better to just pick one, then ask what was meant.

"Do you prefer something shiny or something that shimmers?"

'Shiny' sounded like it had a higher potential of being gaudy. "Shimmers."

The tailor nodded thoughtfully and wandered to the bolts of black cloth in corner of the room while muttering to himself. Yuffie grabbed his arm.

"We're going to go out and get some accessories!" she called out. The tailor waved them off distractedly.

"Is this really necessary?" Sephiroth asked as she pulled him out the door and back onto the street.

"Yes!" she said as if he was an idiot for asking. Resigned to his fate, Sephiroth just hoped that the information he got from Don Corneo would be worth it. First stop was a perfume stall where Yuffie fussed with different blends before finally settling on a earthy musk that was not completely offensive.

Next was a vending machine that had a variety of jewelry from cheap paste and brass to genuine precious stones. Sephiroth was wondering how the vendor didn't get robbed blind when Yuffie's selection got hung up inside the machine. She started swearing and pounding on the plexi-glass front when a machine gun lowered from the ceiling of the small alcove they were standing in. Sephiroth barely pulled her back out of the line of fire. Cheap bullets shattered on the scuffed and pitted concrete floor, sending shrapnel flying. After he pried her away from the killer vending machine, Yuffie decided to obsess on female undergarments.

"Is this _really_ necessary?" He asked again. Surely male pride had to mean something to this woman.

"Of course," She gushed. Apparently not. "Now if only I could remember where Aerith said they got it before."

_Aerith?_ Sephiroth didn't ask, since the muttered comment had clearly not been intended to be overheard. He wondered what exactly the connection was between Cloud and Yuffie and Zack and Aerith. There had to be something more to it than just WolfHaven. Cloud had been too shook up by Zack. And who was Aerith to have Cloud at her beck and call? He didn't even jump like that for Heidegger, and the man signed their paychecks.

"I guess that will have to do," Yuffie declared, heading for a shadowy storefront with an illegible sign hanging over the door. Sephiroth caught a glimpse of numerous fetish paraphernalia in the window and just barely had time to wonder what she was getting him into before following her inside.

Inside the store was incongruously bright. White washed walls with widely spaced shelving and bright fluorescent light clearly displayed the wide selection of toys, specialized Materia and videos. Yuffie made a bee-line for the racks of lingerie. Fighting to keep a brilliant blush from overwhelming his expressionless façade, Sephiroth followed. Even though Cloud was his first lover, Sephiroth was not completely innocent when it came to some of the more exotic aspects of sex; he spent a significant time in the ShinRa barracks after all.

"You'll need this," she said, handing him a corset. It wasn't a decorative lacy piece like the ones on display, but a much sturdier construction of leather and dragon-bone stays. Maybe he could let her buy it and just not wear it.

To the corset she also added garters, 'shaper' stockings, and gel-filled 'bust enhancements.' He wondered if he should be concerned that she knew what was needed without any assistance from the bored associate behind the cash register. Then he decided that he really didn't want to think about it too hard; he might actually come up with answers even more scarring.

"Okay, I think that's everyth- ooh! Shoes!" Yuffie suddenly turned sharply from her path towards another section of the store. The collection was mostly leather boots in an assortment of styles and more zippers, straps, and buckles then Sephiroth had seen in any one place. Ever.

Even with a measuring guide, Yuffie insisted that he try on each pair she picked out. It was a long, tedious process. The pair Yuffie finally settled on were not boots at all, but a pair of stiletto heels with a wide strap that wrapped around the ankle. Instead of buckles it zipped up at the back with small black and silver beads dangling from the zipper. Finally finished, Yuffie dragged him to the cashier and, to add insult to injury, made him pay for the purchases.

They had almost escaped the store when Yuffie drew up short. "Actually, the light in here is better than in the tailor shop," she said, for no apparent reason.

"Better for what?" he asked suspiciously.

"For make-up of course!" she said cheerfully spinning around and standing on her tiptoes to closely examine his face. She was having far too much fun. "Now, let me get a look at you. Leviathan's tears, you have gorgeous eyelashes." The flush he'd managed to control throughout the store finally broke free at the unexpected compliment. It died a quick death at her next words. "Smooth skin, no stubble. That'll make this so much easier."

"If you say so," he ground out between clenched teeth. Was it really necessary to point out that while other boys his age were starting to spout fine facial hairs, proud of this outward sign of maturity, he wasn't?

"Don't be a grump," Yuffie ordered cheerfully whipping out compacts and brushes from nowhere that he could determine. "Remember, you can leave at anytime. I think a smoky eye would work best."

She wielded tiny sponge tipped wands with the all the flourish of a magician, and powders in soft pink and pale skin tones were applied with large feather-soft brushes. The last was a carmine gloss that was applied to his lips. She held up a tiny mirror to him. "What do you think?"

The reflection looked strange. It was him, yet it wasn't. His skin looked softer and smoother, the eyes dark and sultry. He wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it.

"Okay, enough staring at yourself. Let's go check on that dress." She snapped the mirror shut and without another glance walked out the door. Sephiroth was left to collect the bags and follow at a slower pace.

For all the time they has spent in the store, the crowd outside had not thinned at all. He kept expecting people to stare at him askance given the bags he was carrying proudly proclaimed the shop in bold colors, but no one gave him a second look. In less time than he was expecting, but more than he had hoped for, he was back in the relative safety of the tailor shop.

Inside Sephiroth was surprised to see the tailor was working on an almost completed black evening gown. The shimmer of a Haste spell haloing the man explained how he could have completed so much in so little time. He didn't even look up at the bell over the door rang at their entrance. "Almost done. There."

"Perfect!" Yuffie cooed, once again leaning over the counter.

"Yes, well. You said you needed it quickly, so I went with a simple A-line dress with halter-top in a silk chiffon." Sephiorth wondered if babbling was a side-effect of the Haste.

"Great! Can he put it on?" Yuffie clapped her hands excitedly.

"Oh! Yes. Yes, of course." Before he could object Sephiroth was bundled into a large changing room in the back.

"Don't forget to put the perfume on your pulse points at your wrist, throat and inner thigh!" Yuffie ordered him cheerfully.

"Where?" Sephiroth asked, slightly scandalized at the suggestion.

"Trust me!" She said and snapped the heavy curtains shut with a dramatic swish. Sephiroth stared down at the arranged bags and wondered where to start. After struggling with the various articles and after a few false starts—like discovering that yes, he did need to wear the corset—he was finally ready to exit the relative safety of the dressing room, which was probably just as well, Yuffie was literally bouncing with impatience.

"Eee! You look- your hair," she said, ending on a dismayed note.

"What about it?" he asked.

"The messy braid just doesn't go with the image," she declared authoritatively. He pulled the tail of his windblown braid over his shoulder and examined the tattered tip. He never really gave his hair much thought. Even the occasional haircuts for the more conventional styles seemed like a hassle to schedule out the time for it, and, truth be told, he liked the soothing and semi-meditative state to be found in brushing out his hair. "Here we are!"

He looked up to find Yuffie brandishing a soft bristled brush. He held out one hand for the brush.

"Ah-ah-ah," she admonished, clutching the brush to her chest. She twirled her finger around in a circle. "Turn around."

He gave her a hard look. He'd heard enough hateful remarks in the barracks about 'doing each other's hair' with the express purpose to emasculate any particular pair of boys who had grown too close for the rest of the troopers to tolerate. But then, Yuffie _was_ a girl, so maybe it would be okay? That, and she obviously wasn't going to give up the brush without a fight. He turned around, and attempted to impart his dismay through sullen silence.

"I used to help Tifa with hers," Yuffie chatted, obliviously happy. "When we were on the road she keep it tied back in a low ponytail, but the tie was always slipping, and man, was her hair a mandragora patch after a fight when that happened. Her hair was thicker than yours though. The weight of it gave her headaches and she eventually had to chop a bunch of it off. I cried. She didn't though, that was Tifa. She was all kinds of strong."

Yuffie carefully unbraided his hair and worked on each section individually. All the while chatting mindlessly.

"And then there was Aerith." Sephiroth tensed at the now familiar name. Yuffie's gentle tugs slowed. "She had _gorgeous_ hair. Used to keep it in a braid too."

He frowned at her use of the past tense. Presuming that Aerith was the young lady he saw in the church, she still did. "Used to?" he asked.

Yuffie stilled. "Well, I suppose she still does."

Sephiroth made a non-committal sound as she resumed brushing his hair. It was odd. That she would forget something like that about a friend. Time travel could explain it. He mentally shoved the thought aside. It was foolish to use Reeve's wild idea as an explanation for every puzzle he came across. The real answer was probably just something simple that he was missing. Probably because he was busy entertaining the theory of _time travel_ instead of more serious hypotheses.

"There you are. All done," She said fussing with his hair for a few final moments; tucking this piece behind his ear, laying that piece over his shoulder. She turned him towards a mirror. He had to admit she did do a nice job of picking out the tangles. After having been confined to a braid for so long, his hair retained gentle waves. It flowed down his back like a silver waterfall with a few locks artfully draped over his shoulders.

Altogether the transformation was astonishing. While he wasn't foolish enough to wonder who the woman in the mirror was, he did wonder briefly if this was what his mother had looked like. He'd always known that he had taken after her more—he certainly didn't bear much resemblance to Hojo—but this was the first time he had some insight on what his mother might have been like. Exotic cat-like green eyes and pale skin and hair, she would have been very striking at the least. Sephiroth wondered if that was what had gotten the singularly focused Professor Hojo away from his work long enough for a courtship and brief marriage?

"Thank you," he said softly. His mother had been dead for all but the first few moments of his life. Her presence or lack thereof had never affected him much more than an occasional errant thought or passing curiosity. He was just now starting to wonder how, exactly, _did_ she fit into all of this? Were her green-green eyes really a family trait—or a result of the virus that shared her name?

He shoved the troubling thoughts aside and turned to Yuffie who smiled at him. "Great! We're ready to go!"

… … …

**AN:** I received several questions wondering why Cloud didn't notice that Sephiroth was following him. There is a reason, but it probably won't be addressed for a while yet as Sephiroth doesn't have enough information to ask the right question. And since this matter will be addressed, I don't want to spoil it yet. (Although there was a hint in this chapter, a very small one. Good luck finding it!)


	19. Chapter 19

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 19

**AN:** First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone for the incredibly long wait for this chapter, and thank you for the comments that I continued to receive while working on this. Each and every one of you has made me smile. The reason for the delay was that I struggled with getting the balance of Corneo's in-game treatment as comic relief against a more realistic portrayal of the situation that he put Tifa and other girls in. That said, **Trigger Warning for mention of rape.**

Also, previous chapters received some editing for clarity and missed words. I also swapped out "Wutese" for "Wusheng" since it sounds better to me, and research I've done shows that this may be canon (though I couldn't find anything reputable in English). Overall, no changes that will affect the plot.

… … …

Yuffie twined her arm around his as they made their way through the crowd. She grinned up at him. "We look gorgeous, getting in is a sure thing!"

"Where, exactly, are we going?" Sephiroth asked. Even with locking down his bike, he didn't feel comfortable with leaving it too far behind in unfriendly territory. He was worried less about it being stolen then needing to drag Yuffie out of a bad situation. Especially since she had swiped his clothes and weapons, if it came down to fighting, she better hope that Corneo didn't have any unexpected surprises laying in wait.

"Not far, it's just a few blocks up that-a-way on the other side of the junk yard."

Junk yard? Depending on how large it was it could be good for losing a tail, but it could also be a potential monster hotspot. Sephiroth mentally flagged the location. Just in case.

The house, mansion really, was one of the few buildings under the plate that Sephiroth had seen so far that was not built from a haphazard collection of repurposed materials. It was designed with a vaguely Wusheng feel to the structure. Surface touches only though, the underlying construction was primarily Eastern-standard. On the front stoop of the imposing building three men in rumpled, but clearly expensive and well tailored, suits lounged on the steps with an air of casual menace. These men clearly thought they were dangerous and expected everyone else to behave accordingly.

As they drew closer, Yuffie altered her pace into sinuous, slinking stalk. Sephiroth just held his head up and prayed that he didn't trip in the heels he was wearing. One of the three goons let out an appreciative wolf whistle.

"We're here to see your boss," Yuffie said as she planted herself in front of the men.

"I bet you are, darlin'," a scruffy looking man with a chewed, unlit cigarette hanging from his lip said. "Boss already has his choice for tonight, come back tomorrow."

Yuffie pouted, "We won't be here tomorrow, and I heard the Don could give us such a good time." She leaned forward to play with his skinny tie and smirked. "And I bet they won't be nearly as hot as us."

The man she was toying with gave a hesitant look behind him to a larger goon who had remained quiet throughout their approach. The second goon leaned back and spoke softly into his cuff. "Whadda ya think?"

Sephiroth didn't catch the reply, but the big man nodded his head towards the door. Scruffy gave Yuffie an oily grin. "Well, let's see what we can do ya for. Follow me."

He pulled himself up with help from the nearby railing and led the way into the building. Inside it was decorated along the same theme as the outside, only garishly so. Crimson fought with gold leaf to catch the eye. Concrete floors were covered in layers of thick, lush rugs. Decorative screens, made with paper and wooden slats, lined walls, covered doorways, and partitioned off areas. They were led to the back and down a long stone stairwell.

The flaunted wealth cut off abruptly as they entered the back. Sephiroth considered the damp stone walls as they made their way down. Perhaps this was a back servant's area, devoid of the wealth that Corneo obviously preferred to wallow in. If he was looking to impress his potential conquests, this was an odd way to go about it.

At the bottom of the stairs it opened up into a large… dungeon was the only word that would aptly describe the room they entered. There was a massive fireplace at the far end ringed with a host of pokers and branding irons. Heavy chains and manacles dangled from the walls. The center of the room was dominated by a large bloodstained table with heavy leather straps affixed to it, clearly intended to hold down arms and legs. Three frightened girls huddled together in one corner. Now the little side trip was starting to make more sense. Intimidation tactics. Probably to keep the girls quiet afterwards.

"Oi, there! Blondie!" Their escort snapped his fingers at one tearstained young woman. "You, aaand you! Get out." He jerked his thumb towards the stairs. The girls glanced briefly at the third member of their little group, a pretty brunette with large dark eyes, but they didn't hesitate for long and soon were running up the stairs. "And don't dawdle!" The man shouted after them, before turning toward Yuffie and Sephiroth. "Wait here until the Don is ready for you." Before turning to leave he gave Sephiroth one last lingering look. "You, I'll be seeing later."

Sephiroth watched the man swagger back up the stairs and turned to Yuffie, who was happily ransacking the toolbox next to the table. "What did he mean by that?"

"Hmm? Oh, the girls not picked by Corneo are left with his men," she said casually while prying Materia out of an Iron bangle she found. The girl left in the corner whimpered. "Probably the one he picks after he's done with her, too."

Sephiroth ground his teeth and glared at Yuffie. "And you didn't think to mention this earlier?"

Yuffie blinked up at him, surprised by his vehemence. "Well, no. They're pushovers."

"Forget this. I'm aborting the mission," Sephiroth said reaching for his PHS.

"No you're not!" She said in a cheerful sing-song voice while holding up his PHS.

"Yuffie, this isn't amusing," he said sternly, for all the good it did him. "Cloud needs to know about this." He narrowed his eyes as a new thought occurred to him. "He does know and that's why he didn't want you doing this."

Yuffie rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I swear being here again he thinks he needs to do everything by himself! I can help out and I'm going to prove it!"

The fact that her sentiment echoed his own thoughts on occasion, the desire to help and prove himself to Cloud, gave Sephiroth pause. "So, what's the plan?" He asked before his better sense could reassert itself.

"The plan?" she blinked at him. They really should have worked these details out _before_ crashing the mansion. Sephiroth mentally berated himself, once for not asking earlier and twice for assuming Yuffie even had an actual plan. "Okay, right. The plan. All three of us will be taken up to Don's office. There he'll pick one of us to take to the back, if it's you, just stall until I get there. If it me-"

"Whichever one of us doesn't get picked will have to help her get out of here," Sephiroth insisted pointing to girl left in the room with them.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Of course."

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes as he studied her. "You aren't taking Corneo or his men very seriously. Why not?"

"Because they're a joke," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They may be used to bullying spineless Midvolk, but I'm like nothing they've seen before. And you. Shit. If they knew what you were, they'd be pissing their pants."

"And what am I?" Sephiroth asked softly.

Yuffie's eyes widened in panic. "I-I- You're-"

"Ladies," a rough voice interrupted her stuttering answer. "The Don will see you now. Follow me."

Yuffie was out the door like a shot. Sephiroth followed at a more sedate pace with the still nameless young woman. They were led back up the stairs through the opulently decorated main hall and up a grand staircase that was carpeted in thick crimson. Up to the second floor they were let to, presumably, Corneo's office.

Here the décor was even worse. Statues and ornate furniture vied for crammed space in what may have been a fairly large room. The central part of the room was taken up by a massive desk, behind which a heavy set middle aged man lounged in a leather office chair, wrapped in a thick red dressing gown. The most striking thing about the man was his bright blond hair done up in an odd style, a cross between a Mohawk and a Pompadour. If this was Corneo he could see why Yuffie wasn't inclined to take him too seriously.

As they were arranged on the gold and red medallion rug in front of the desk Corneo jumped up and leaned over the desk with an eager expression on his face. "Is this them? Is this them?"

"These 'r' da girls, boss," their guide said before backing up a few steps, reminding Sephiroth of a man trying not to get between a Manticore and its dinner. Corneo…jiggled, was the only word Sephiroth could come up with to describe the movement, as the man giggled and clapped his hands with glee.

"And what pretty girls they are!" Corneo crowed. Even through the antics Sephiroth examine the man for incongruous details that didn't match the disarmingly silly facade that he was displaying. The man was portly, but under that layer of fat was unmistakably hard muscle. The heavy gold rings could do a lot of damage, even with the force of an unenhanced man's punch behind them, and watery blue eyes were unmistakably sharp.

"Oh, which one? Which one? This adorable waif? This exotic jewel? Or, this statuesque beauty?" Corneo asked as examined each of them in turn. The unnamed girl trembled under his gaze, and Yuffie flirted, but Sephiroth simply stared impassively. There were some things even he wouldn't do for either his own curiosity or Yuffie's safety, and that limit was being reached.

Corneo hemmed and hawed loudly, going back and forth between the three of them before, finally, reaching a decision. "I want…this one!" He declared pointing at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth wasn't sure if he was happy that this idiotic plan seemed to be actually working, or disappointed that this idiotic plan seemed to be actually working. He managed to keep a blatant scowl from his face and followed the leering man behind a decorative screen to another room beyond the desk, discreetly palming a very sharp gold plated letter opener from the desk as he slid past it. The last thing he heard of the others was the goon shuffling Yuffie and the other girl out of the office.

The new room was just as lavishly decorated as the office with a massive four poster that could probably fit half a dozen people dominating the room. Pillows in a riot of rich fabrics were piled high on the bed and spilled out onto the floor. Corneo flopped down on the thick mattress and leaned back with a come hither look, looking more like a beached whale then some great lover. He patted the sheets, satin, not silk, and smirked suggestively. "Come, have a seat. Tell me about yourself."

Surprised that the man, who by all accounts was only looking for one thing out of these little contests, would ask, Sephiroth cocked his head slightly to the side. "Why do you care?"

"Ah, a jaded one." Corneo laughed. "My favorite. I don't really, but it puts the girls at ease. I've found the screaming gives me horrible migraines. Doesn't go away for _hours_."

"You have my sympathy," Sephiroth said coldly.

Corneo gave him a sharp look, but didn't press. He patted the bed beside him again. "Well, as long as you understand the situation we might as well get down to business."

"No."

Corneo's expression turned from a cheerful leer to thunderous anger with unhealthy red and purple mottling on his heavy features. He sat up sharply and the air in the room was suddenly very different. "Now, see here girl-"

"No." A casual flick of Sephiroth's wrist and the letter opener was in his hand. Corneo's blood on the tip dripped onto the rug to be lost in the intricate patterns. The man dabbed at his cheek with a look of disbelief on his face. "I have a few questions for you."

"Who are you? Did that upstart from the Red Hand send you?" Corneo asked.

"What did you take from WolfHaven?"

Corneo froze and stared at Sephiroth. "You're not WolfHaven."

"No, but the Wusheng girl, who will be up here shortly, is, and if I don't get answers, ShinRa won't be able to provide assistance to you in this mess."

"Shin- Who _are_ you?"

"Sephiroth. SOLDIER Operative Second Class." Corneo fell off of the edge of the bed, one hand flailing for support.

"Y-you-you're Sephiroth?" He stared at Sephiroth in shock. "Really?"

Feeling a little stung, Yuffie's makeup didn't change him _that_ much, Sephiroth nodded sharply and glared at the portly man.

"Well, fuck me." Corneo muttered as he dragged himself up and staggered to the wet bar ensconced in one corner of the room. He picked up one decanter of elegant cut glass and splashed a generous measure of amber liquid into a tumbler before gulping a couple of mouthfuls directly from the decanter. After putting down the severely drained container, he picked up the tumbler and sat down heavily in the nearby wing chair. "Sephiroth, I should have known."

The man no longer looked like the comical caricature that he was playing earlier, or the dangerous mob boss that peeked through for a moment. He was just a man, drained and defeated. Sephiroth studied the man carefully. Who was he really? "Why?" Sephiroth asked. "What should you have known?"

Corneo snorted and took a short pull from the glass in his hand. "When I heard that WolfHaven was working with ShinRa, I knew I just should have held out instead of pushing my plans up. And of course they send you. The whole fucking universe revolves around you."

_What?_ Sephiroth blinked in surprise. It certainly didn't seem that way to _him_.

"Hell if I know why," Corneo continued miserably. Then an odd glint appeared in his eye and he licked his lips. "I may not have been able to figure out heads or tails of it, but I bet you could. If you want some real answers."

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and stared at the man. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't curious, but he was losing control of the situation. Never good in an interrogation. Sephiroth shook his head. "What did you take from WolfHaven?"

"No, see, this is good." Suddenly excited Corneo leapt to his feet and skirted around Sephiroth.

Impatient with the man's distraction Sephiroth grabbed him and slammed him into a large armoire. The wood cracked under the blow. "What. Did. You. Take?"

"Nothing!" Corneo said, gasping for breath and his legs kicking for purchase on the floor that just out of reach. "I didn't take nothin' that wasn't already mine!"

"Then why do they want you so bad?" Sephiroth asked.

"I don't know!" Sephiroth lifted Corneo a little higher and dug the letter opener into the man's thick neck though he was careful not to break the skin. "I may have blown up their gravity-hole. A little. It wasn't my fault, really! Total accident, I swear!"

"Why?" Sephiroth didn't even need to provide further incentive the sniveling man started babbling nearly on his own.

"I had some grunts on my ass, hell I had you on my ass, and it was the only way out. And can I say for the record that you really did a number on yourself."

"What you mean?" Sephiroth asked baffled by the sudden shift in topic.

"Well, last I saw you, your face was scarred up real bad," Corneo said glancing anxiously back at his drink. "Rumor has it that you did it to yourself, tryin' to take your own face off. I can understand the hair, ruddy blond mess that was…" Sephiroth felt his heart stutter and almost stop in his chest 'blond mess?' Like Cloud's? He had never had scarring on his face. Was Corneo talking about another timeline? Was it possible that Hojo had actually been successful in recreating Sephiroth in Cloud?

One question from the recording had been bothering him. If Hojo really had been trying to recreate Sephiroth using Cloud, why wouldn't he change Cloud's physical appearance as well? Sephiroth's looks were one thing that Hojo always seemed to delight in; that Sephiroth was the mirror image of his mother. However, if Cloud had killed his other incarnation Sephiroth could also easily imagine Hojo would finding equal delight in forcing Sephiroth to see the face of his killer, his failure, everyday for the rest of his unnatural life. And Corneo was still talking.

"…And I don't care what they say nothin' from that future is worth risking them comin' back here. I had to cut it off."

Sephiroth blinked at the frightened man, trying not to let his shock show in his expression. _That future_. There it was clearly spelled out. The confirmation he was looking for. Corneo was from the future. Sephiroth eased up on the man a bit. "What was your future like?"

"ShinRa found the fuckin' Promised Land, that's what it was like. Sucked the whole fucking Planet dry. They lived like kings on that Knights-be-damned plate while the rest of us, well-" Corneo gave a dry humorless laugh. "You've seen the slums; it's like my own little slice of home."

"And how do I fit into it?" Sephiroth asked, becoming confused. None of this sounded like anything he'd heard from the disk _or_ Zack.

"ShinRa's 'Silver General'," Corneo said with an ugly expression. "More like trained dog. You head the Department of Public Safety after, according to popular rumor, knifing Heidegger for jerking you around one time too many. You keep the rest of us peons in line and feeding into the machine. But it's not going to happen now. I've made sure ShinRa is too busy throwing money and resources quelling anti-ShinRa groups, so they can't complete the machine."

Sephiroth grimaced at that description. Not that there wasn't a SOLDIER or trooper that wouldn't dream of doing the same, but he wouldn't actually do it. He didn't think. The more Corneo talked the less sense he made. "What machine? What are you talking about?"

"Machine, machine. The energy," Corneo said sounding exasperated. "Don't you know what the Lifestream _is_? It's _life_. ShinRa practically drained the planet and need us to… create more Lifestream for more Mako for the energy. Look, here." One of Corneo's hands that had been scrabbling along the face of the armoire he was pressed against found some hidden latch. There was a soft _click_ and a small door hidden in the carving popped open. Blindly, Corneo fished out a key and pressed it into Sephiroth's hand. "This, this is the answer."

Sephiroth released the man, and stepped back to examine the key. Like the one that Reeve had used on the cabinet in his office it had a small piece of Materia embedded in the brass. It was otherwise plain and unremarkable giving no clue as to what Barrier it was linked to. "The answer to what?"

"Ev-"

"Aw, did you get started without me?" Yuffie's cheerful voice cut off Corneo's answer as she bounded into the room. Sephiroth quickly hid the key under a leather strap of the corset near the neckline of the dress where it would be unlikely to slip free and be lost.

Corneo recovered his ridiculous persona rather quickly, marred only by the bloody cut on his cheek. He rolled his hips suggestively. "Well, if you must insist on joining in, I have more than enough to go around."

Yuffie whipped out an impressively large shuriken, from literally nowhere, and brandished it at Corneo. "You come near me with that thing, and I'll cut it off!"

Corneo let out an exaggerated yelp and staggered back into the wall. Yuffie strode forward towards the trembling man. Uncertain what game Corneo was playing with the young woman, Sephiroth kept pace and kept a sharp eye out for trouble. If there was one secret compartment, it was hard to say what else could be hidden around the room.

"Now, then," Yuffie said, in a sharp business-like tone of voice. "You stole a number of files on some very sensitive information that WolfHaven is looking to get back."

"Well, I suppose we could come to _some _sort of arrangement," Corneo said, letting his eyes travel up and down Yuffie's slender form suggestively.

"Eww! Don't even think about it!" Yuffie squealed.

"Ah, well, in that case-" Corneo jerked down on a lever that was disguised as a candle sconce and the floor fell out from under them. Sephiroth tried to make a grab for the edge, but between the rug and Yuffie hindering his movements he wasn't able to do much more the scrape his hands against the smooth walls of the chute they had been dumped down.

After a long slide, even the sharply angled chute disappeared to be replaced by a few moments of gut wrenching free-fall before they landed with a wet, muffled thump on a pile of rotting garbage.

"Oh, gross! I'm never gonna get my deposit back on this stupid kimono!"

Decided it would be wiser to ignore Yuffie's plight for more immediate concerns. Sephiroth kicked off the rug and got to his feet. He looked around to see light seeping in at regular intervals from vents in the ceiling. The walls were covered with slime and black mold, but underneath was a solid red brick, native to Midgar construction. A wide canal filled with brackish water filled up most of the space, they were standing on a walkway that lined the canal, with stairs at regular intervals leading into the dark water. "Where are we?"

"Ick! Sewers beneath Wall Market," Yuffie said, detangling herself from the rug and not even glancing up.

"Why would ShinRa build something this-" _large,_ "extensive for the slums?"

"They didn't. When they built the plate they bulldozed or buried large sections of the pre-existing towns, and you get sections like this that are still more or less intact and act as a sewer for the slums that were built on top by the displaced people."

"You know a lot about ShinRa and Midgar for a Wusheng girl," Sephiroth noted absently.

"I had a friend who was pretty involved in this stuff," she said with a shrug. "I just picked up a thing or three."

Sephiroth's sharp ears caught the sound of claws scraping against stone. It could just be rats, very large rats, but it probably wasn't. "Yuffie, we may have aggros," he said, referring to the slang term troopers and SOLDIERs used for aggressive and territorial monsters that were likely to attack nearby people with minimal provocation. "Where's my sword?"

Yuffie snapped into a fighting stance, the large shuriken once more in her hand. The other was fumbling for a bangle that was wrapped around her wrist. The scratching sound got louder, accompanying now by a low, watery, gurgling noise. Sephiroth wasn't terribly surprised when humanoid fish-like creatures lurched towards them from around a blind corner.

Some type of sahagin Sephiroth guessed, his mind quickly catalogued what he knew of the creatures. They were very adaptable, with species found in salt water, freshwater, arctic waters. Even to areas where landlocked seas have dried eons ago leaving a desert of salt and sand behind, sahagin have adapted rather than leave their territory. They were _very_ territorial and very aggressive. For anything more they would need a Sense Materia. Or at least his PHS which would be able to identify the sub-species they were facing if nothing else.

The first one dropped as Yuffie flung her shuriken at it, the sharp edge slicing through the creature like it was nothing. The trouble was that it left them momentarily defenseless and the remaining sahagin were smart enough to take advantage of that fact. They rushed forward with rusty trident tips leading the way. "Yu-ffie!"

"Here!" She tossed the bangle at him before turning to face the sahagin with fist and feet.

"What good will…." Sephiroth's question trailed off as he examined the single Materia in the bangle. It was a dark yellow, almost brown, color. With such an impure color he was almost expecting a substandard skill or ability. What he found instead was a single rank, low drain skill and a vast hollow. Not like the emptiness of the White Materia, but a space waiting to be filled. "Item?"

Yuffie had her shuriken in her hands again, ripping through another sahagin, but more were coming.

Drawing on the Item skill in the Materia Sephiroth could sense a large array of things already stored in the innocuous stone, including his clothes and PHS. Finding his ShinRa Issue Broadsword took a little longer, because there were a lot of weapons. Not just swords and shuriken, but staves, gauntlets, and spears. He didn't need to wonder why ShinRa didn't make more use of Materia like this. Not for the average SOLDIERs and Troopers, anyway. ShinRa doesn't trust its right hand not to steal its left hand blind.

He glanced up. Yuffie was still holding her own, but the sahagin were massing just outside of her reach. Sephiroth grabbed his PHS and a sword at random. He was surprised to see a long katana shimmer into existence in his hands. He had assumed all of the swords would be heavy blades like Cloud's complete Fusion Sword. A quick glance at his PHS informed him that he was armed with the Muramasa and was facing Mutated Midgar Sahagin.

_Weak_, he curled his lip. And cowardly, but could be dangerous en masse. Sephiroth swept forward and slammed the katana through the first row of monsters. It slid through flesh and bone with relative ease, and though the blade was long for a katana, it was still a little short for Sephiroth's preference. The weight was oddly distributed and he couldn't get a comfortable grip, but he ignored the distraction and forced the blade to do what he wanted. It was moments like this that he really missed the way Ashura could move so easily with him.

After seeing what seemed like easy prey rip through a half dozen of them the sahagin gave up and melted away back into the darkness and the water.

"Yeah, and don't come back!" Yuffie yelled after them. She turned to him with a triumphant smile, but her expression froze when she got a look at him. Or rather the sword he was holding.

"Sorry," Sephiroth said sheepishly. "I just grabbed one and-"

Relief swept through her. "Oh! That's okay. The Muramasa right? For a minute there I thought it was something else… I noticed you were back to that crap ShinRa stuff; did you want to use that one until you found something better?"

"No!" _Shiva, Ramuh and Ifrit, no._ Even the SSI Broadsword didn't feel this wrong his hands. "No, that's fine I just needed to grab something quick." To illustrate his point he put the katana back, fumbling a bit with the unfamiliar ability, and started looking again for his broadsword. "That was a- interesting sword. What can you tell me about it?"

"Oh, not much," Yuffie said. "Just the usual. It's a popular weapon back home with a lot of fighters. Mostly because of its legendary ties to the Masamune."

"The Masamune?" It was a name he'd first heard from the smith who sold Ashura, and also later when he was trying to find another odachi. Apparently that style of sword had fallen out of use centuries ago when Wutai lost its hold on the Eastern Steppes region and the chocobo ranches. It was primarily a weapon used by mounted samurai, but it was hard to maintain mounted forces when you lost the vast space needed to husband the finicky birds. Though the odachi had fallen out of common practice some had reached an almost mythical status like the Masamune, the _Cloud Cutter_, or Ashura, the _Dancing Lady_, and many were used as ceremonial pieces in shrines to Leviathan. So, his chances of finding a replacement were limited, he could either commission a sword he couldn't afford or desecrate a shrine—neither a viable option.

"The Masamune?" Yuffie made a face with her tongue sticking out. A brave move considering the thick stench in the air, he'd hate to think of what it _tasted_ like. "Why would you want to hear about that? Legend says that it was made for a Wusheng Shogun by a master smith. It was the greatest sword he ever made, and the last. The smith killed himself afterwards because he no longer had a goal to strive for. Personally, I think that bit's just romantic nonsense. Typical of that era.

"Anyway, the Shogun spread the Wusheng Empire over half the known world with that sword in his hand," Yuffie said. They started walking down the 'sidewalk' as he found his broadsword and armed himself with it. Yuffie continued her story. "It's said that a god grew angry with the Shogun's greed and descended on the world in a storm of rage. The Shogun was able to destroy the god, but he died in the process. The Masamune has been believed to have been lost for centuries, but-"

She trailed off and gave him a side eyed look. "But?" he prompted.

"The smith, the one who made the Masamune, his apprentices were able to learn some of the secrets to making it. Though the process is incomplete the Muramasa they created was nearly on par with its predecessor."

"'The Muramasa?' you made it sound earlier like there was more than one."

"Well, technically, there is. All katana made using that particular technique are called Muramasa." Yuffie looked around with her hands firmly planted on her hips. "How did they get out of here last time anyways?"

"Who?" Sephiroth asked, startled by her abrupt question.

"Cloud with Aerith when they went to rescue Tifa, of course!"

"Of course," Sephiroth echoed weakly. That explained how Cloud knew about Corneo, but then, how did Cloud get in? Surely not the same way Yuffie had gotten Sephiroth in. "Do you have any explosives or a bomb kit?"

"Ooo, good idea! Blow ourselves out!" She checked the Materia that has since made its way back to her wrist. "No, bomb kit but I have several options for explosives. We have a few S-Mines, some T/S Bombs, or an 8-Inch Cannon. Which do you think would work best?"

Sephiroth winced. "We want to widen one of the existing storm drains, not bring down the entire Sector. Do you have any grenades?"

"Party pooper," Yuffie pouted. "Here."

"Thank you." Sephiroth took the grenade and started looking for a likely place to use it.

The ceiling was just out of reach, but one of the storm drains was near a metal fence that may have at one time stretched across the open sewer, possibly for security reasons, but has since fallen into rusted disrepair. Now only a small panel remained, jutting out from concrete and brick. Sephiroth climbed his way up to look through the opening. He couldn't see much of anything beside cracked blacktop. He couldn't hear anything either. Hopefully, that meant that no one was near enough to be hurt by the blast, rather than this simply being a quiet area. He wedged the grenade into a crack in the crumbling wall and pulled the pin.

Dropping lightly to the slippery walkway, he dove for cover around what may have once been an alley while dragging Yuffie with him. The small tunnel was now mostly a dark hole in the sewer wall that extended half a dozen feet before coming to an abrupt end in a slab of concrete.

The grenade exploded with a deceptively small _pop_ that was followed by the larger crack and crash of crumbling brick and mortar. Sephiroth gave it a few moments for the dust and debris to settle before releasing Yuffie and following her out to see if the hole they made would be big enough to let them escape.


	20. Chapter 20

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 20

… … …

By the time he got to the opening Yuffie was already halfway out of the hole with her legs kicking wildly for purchase. "Air! Fresh, sweet-okay, it's the slums, but still—air! Yii!"

She shrieked as he grabbed one thrashing foot and boosted her up. Her other foot, nearly kicked him in the head, missing only by the grace of genetically engineered reflexes, and slammed into his shoulder with a resounding _crack_ instead. Sephiroth grunted in pain, but grabbed that foot as well and shoved her up through the hole before following.

"Shiva, you scared me when you grabbed me like that!" Yuffie said, scrambling to her feet. She lifted the collar of her kimono to sniff at the cloth. "Good thing you have a bike. I don't think they'd let us on the trains smelling like this."

"What would make you think I would give you a lift _anywhere_, after dragging me through all that for _nothing_?" Sephiroth asked, feigning more irritation then he actually felt. He wasn't sure how she or any of the others would react to the information he learned from Corneo—for that matter he still wasn't sure how _he_ should be reacting to the information from Corneo-so he thought it best to keep it to himself until he could think things through a little more.

"First of all," She said waving the bangle with the Storage Materia. "I have your clothes. Second it wasn't all for nothing. I ransacked the place before I went to get you. If I didn't get everything I got a good chunk of it, and a few redundancy copies too!"

He sighed. She was right about the clothes there was no way he was walking into ShinRa Headquarters dressed like this. "Do you know where we are?"

"Um-" She looked around. There was a massive wall next to them that looked like it stretched up to the Plate, or very close to it. Around them garbage was piled up in heaps of unsorted junk. "Well, that's probably the sector wall. I think we might be on the Sector Seven side. I'm not sure. I've never really been there-here."

Sephiroth fished out his PHS from the corset where he had hurriedly shoved it earlier. The map he pulled up showed that she was correct. They were in Sector Seven. He keyed in a request and a red line blinked into existence on the grey-green screen. "We need to head that way to get back to Sector Six."

"Awesome! The sooner we get back home the sooner I can crawl into a shower," Yuffie said cheerfully and headed off in the indicated direction.

Of course, it was easier said than done. There had been some shifts since the last time the area was surveyed and the route marked had been cut off, but they were able to work their way in the generally right direction. Though Sephiroth knew that there were plenty of monsters roaming this area, they were able to reach the throughway with minimal attacks. He wandered if the smell might have had something to do with it. It certainly caused the people in Sector Six to give them a wide enough berth.

Sephiroth was relieved to find the bike where he left it, but wasn't surprised to learn that the security system had logged several attempts to steal it. The lockbox remained untampered with and Genesis' cure should still be tucked safely inside. The small scout wasn't really built for passengers, but Yuffie was small and practically molded herself to his back with her long sleeves tucked into her wide obi to keep them from catching on the wheels. His own skirt had to be divided and tied off at knee and ankle to keep out of the way.

Once they were free of Wall Market it was a matter of minutes to catch the express ramp that paralleled the train tracks and follow it up to the Sector 8 exit and the hotel. Yuffie was generous enough to offer Cloud's shower, and she even gave him back his clothes.

The warm water was a relief. After that he was going to have some words for the next trooper that complained about the flooding in the interior of the plate—that still hadn't drained—at least that water was _clean_. The shower also gave him time to review what he learned, and what new questions needed to be asked. Was it really too much to ask for an answer that didn't open a whole new can of worms? Sandworms, at the rate things seemed to be going.

Sephiroth still wasn't sure how Corneo and his radically different future fit into it. Why would he sell SOLDIER data to Fuhito? The data had to have been stolen from WolfHaven, because Sephiroth knew that anything in ShinRa's computers was locked down. Clearly, WolfHaven was after Corneo to take back control of the timeline.

He scoffed at himself. _Clearly,_ there was no _clearly _about anything. And what would they do with the timeline assuming it could be controlled? Could they mine the future for information to profit in the present? Were they looking for some combination of events to create a future utopia? Was that what his termination order was all about? Making a new future by removing one person?

Sephiroth looked up, in surprise as the bathroom door opened. Cloud slide into the room, closing the door behind him without letting too much of the warm steam escape.

"Hey," Sephiroth greeted the other man, hoping he sounded more relaxed and natural then he felt. Cloud smiled at him, and Sephiroth's singing nerves started to settle. So, Cloud didn't know that he was followed to the church.

"Yuffie told me about your little adventure." Cloud's grin widened. "With pictures."

Sephiroth passed his hand over his face. Of course she did. The sound of rustling clothes caught his attention, and he glanced up to find Cloud pulling his vest off over his head. For a moment, Sephiroth's breath caught with confusion. Then he remembered, Cloud didn't know that Veld told Sephiroth WolfHaven ordering to have him killed. Cloud didn't know that Sephiroth had talked to Zack or any of the other things that had happened since the last time they were able to catch a brief moment together. Sephiroth admired the smooth motion and sleek muscles. He also noticed that Cloud was half-hard. "What? Seeing me in a dress turns you on?"

Cloud smirked, and said."You, naked in my shower, turns me on."

His heavy black boots and pants soon followed his vest to the floor. Sephiroth stepped back to allow Cloud in under the showerhead before leaning in for a kiss. It was easy to push his worries aside and lose himself in Cloud. Touch and taste. He didn't object when Cloud lathered up another washcloth to wipe away the memory of sewer grime and grit. In turn he washed Cloud as well. He traced every hard line and taut muscle with questing fingers touching and teasing.

Cloud had him trapped against the cool tile, pressing hot open kisses against Sephiroth's neck and shoulder when the pipes rattled and the water turned icy cold. With a startled yelp, Cloud leapt back, out of the shower, and away from the water. He tried not to laugh, really he did. Sephiroth couldn't help the smirk that snuck out as he reached over to turn off the water.

"Not funny," Cloud grumbled as he grabbed the two largest towels from the bottom of the neatly folded pile on the counter, letting the rest tumble to the floor.

"Not at all," Sephiroth agreed amicably as he accepted one of the towels, with a smile still pulling at his lips. He wiped at the droplets of water still clinging to his chest and upper arms before gathering his long hair into the towel, roughly scrubbing the water from the strands that had darkened to a light grey.

"You are such a tease," Cloud chuckled softly pulling him into the bedroom and the soft turned-down bed. He fumbled for a moment at the night stand for a small tube in the drawer. Sephiroth took the moment of distraction to turn the tables on Cloud, pinning him to the mattress. Cloud moaned and arched under his hands.

"Taking the lead today?" Cloud asked breathlessly.

"I-" Sephiroth froze, suddenly uncertain. What if Cloud didn't like it this way? What if he did something wrong? He _wanted,_ but- "Are you okay with this?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Cloud asked tilting his head slightly.

"Before, you always seemed so-" Sephiroth hesitated, searching for a word and failing to find it. "I was worried that maybe you only liked it that way."

"Ah, shit." Cloud looked chagrined. He ran one hand through ruffled blond spikes. Sephiroth pulled away and started to apologize. Cloud rolled back over and reached for Sephiroth's hand. "No. I'm the one- I prefer a strong dynamic in my relationships. I don't care if it's me or my partner, and it's not-"

"I wasn't complaining," Sephiroth objected. He enjoyed the things that Cloud could do to him. _Really_ enjoyed them. Cloud shook his head. He reached up to lightly brush the hair out of Sephiroth's eyes.

"I have some bad memories," Cloud admitted, looking so distant and hurt that it made Sephiroth ache in return. Sephiroth curled around Cloud. He felt awkward and clumsy as he gently combed Cloud's hair, but he needed to do something. "I didn't realize how badly I let them affect me."

"I'm fine," He said. His voiced wavered only a little as he remembered the things Zack had said. What if there was a chance that he wouldn't be fine? Sephiroth brutally walled off those thoughts. He couldn't afford to second guess himself. Otherwise he may as well just let WolfHaven kill him. "I'll be fine."

"Hope so," Cloud mumbled. "I never should have brought those things into bed with us. I couldn't forgive myself-"

"It wouldn't be your fault," Sephiroth said firmly. And it wouldn't be. With three possible futures and only one where they had been together; clearly Cloud wasn't the issue. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." The answer came hard and fast. Cloud grimaced slightly. "I probably should though."

Sephiroth opened his mouth to say something. He wanted to say something encouraging, but he had no idea where to even start. He glanced away as Cloud stared up at the ceiling.

"I'm used to everyone knowing about what happened. I never needed to talk about it." Cloud said softly, more to himself then Sephiroth. "Everyone made their own assumptions."

When he fell silent for too long, Sephiroth counted the soft near-silent breaths before asking, "Like what?"

Cloud started slightly, blue eyes glancing briefly to Sephiroth before becoming once again fixed on the ceiling. "Aerith and Yuffie both thought I was in love with him. Cait Sith would sometimes joke about it, but Reeve never said what he really thought."

Sephiroth blinked, surprised at the familiar names even though he was expecting at least some to crop up. And as a side note, he clearly needed to ask Reeve more about what exactly Cait Sith was.

"Barret, Cid and Red thought that I hated him. It was only logical, how could anyone not? After everything he dragged us through. Killing Aerith. Meteorfall."

Sephiroth felt his breath catch in his throat. _Him_, Cloud was talking about the version of himself from Cloud's timeline. And, Meteorfall? This _must_ be the same timeline as the WolfHaven disk.

"And Tifa-" Cloud trailed off. There was a pained look in his eyes. "At least Vincent kept opinions to himself. He probably knew more than he said. Turks." The last was said with mixed fond exasperation; a decidedly odd reaction to the shadowy arm of ShinRa.

"What really happened?" Sephiroth asked.

"He was a hero," Cloud said. "Everyone loved him. I was just one more in the crowd."

"I can't picture you a wallflower." Quiet, yes, but he always had such presence.

Cloud shrugged one shoulder, the one Sephiroth wasn't resting on. "As a teenager, I was short and awkward. As a new minted trooper, I was a fish out of water."

"Still can't picture it," Sephiroth said. Cloud chuckled softly, and Sephiroth felt like he won the lottery.

"Then trust me on it," Cloud said. His light tone didn't last long, turning soft with distant memory once again. "He was perfect. You know that stupid saying: women want to sleep with him, men want to be him? That was him."

"So, you weren't-?" Sephiroth trailed off.

"Can't say I didn't think of it," Cloud said with a small huff. "But no. Mostly, I wanted to be him. The fame. The skill. I just didn't know what that meant. And some days I wish I never found out."

"What happened?" Sephiroth asked. He wished he wrap up this moment and keep it forever. Cloud was so rarely this open. Sephiroth was reminded of that time he broke down to Reeve in his office and how cathartic it had been to talk to someone else. Cloud must have been hurting for a long time.

"I was pulled from training to go on a mission. It was supposed to be a standard monster hunt. Dragons, I think."

"Supposed to be?" Sephiroth knew how badly the 'standard monster hunt' could go.

"The dragons weren't bad," Cloud said. "They were pretty much as advertised."

"So, what when wrong?"

"I never really knew," Cloud said. "I was so blinded by the fact that I was on a mission with _him_ and that we were _there._"

"Where?"

"My hometown." _Nibelheim. _"I didn't realize anything was wrong until everything was burning around me. And then I killed him."

_Oh._ Sephiroth tried to speak, but it felt like his breath had been knocked out of him.

"Then I lost everything," Cloud said. His voice sounded flat and detached. Sephiroth tried to fit Cloud's sparse retelling with events from the WolfHaven disk. The Nibelheim event was probably the mission, and if even a fraction of what the professor said happened to Cloud was true then 'lost everything' was a serious understatement. "And then I killed him again."

"You didn't kill-" _me- _ "him the first time?"

"I did," Cloud said. "Threw his body into the reactor core. It was lost in the Lifestream, but his mind wasn't. He was able to come back using a host, but I don't think that it was entirely him."

"Why?" Sephiroth asked, he had been worried when the professor on the WolfHaven disk talked about how uncertain they were about what had happened.

"Because there was no _talking_ to him," Cloud said. The exasperation was clear in his voice. "He seemed lost in those last moments of madness at the end of his life."

"That sounds terrible," Sephiroth said. He shuddered to think that it might happen to him again. "Do you know how he could do that?"

Cloud hesitated for a long moment. "The J-cells."

"He was able to mold a large enough concentration to anything he needed. Man or monster."

"So you killed him again?"

"And again," Cloud said. His fingers absently traced the dark scar on his stomach. It had smoothed out further in the long months since Icicle Inn and it was nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding skin. "He said that he would keep coming back. As long as I was still alive he would always find a way to come back."

Was that why Cloud came back to alter the past? To stop a seemingly endless cycle? Sephiroth almost asked, but he bit his lip. Instead, "Will he?"

"I hope not." Cloud groaned softly.

"So, what do you feel for him?" Sephiroth asked, curious. He couldn't see how Cloud could do anything but hate him.

"It depends," Cloud said. "Sometimes I hate him. Sometimes, I'm afraid of what he could do. To me. To everyone. To the Planet. But mostly, I think, I pity him."

"Pity?" Sephiroth was genuinely surprised. "Why?"

"Because whatever he had done- horrible as it was. No one deserves to be trapped in their worst moment of weakness forever."

"I love you." The words slipped out before he could stop them.

Cloud blinked at him, seemingly surprised at the sudden non sequitur. Sephiroth felt his cheeks grow warm, and he buried his face against Cloud's shoulder. He really hadn't meant to say that. "I- why?"

Cloud sounded so baffled that Sephiroth, couldn't help but hold him closer. "Because that is the most selfless thing I had ever heard. And you are wonderful. And-"

Sephiroth was abruptly cut off when Cloud kissed him hard. He reveled in the feel of Clouds hot mouth pressed against his. His hands slid easily across Cloud's skin. It never failed to amaze Sephiroth how soft Cloud's skin was. Like silk pulled taut over heavy corded steel, interrupted only by the occasional line of a healing scar. In contrast Cloud's hands were rough and calloused from sword-work, mechanics, and whatever other work he did with his hands.

"Oh, before I forget," Cloud said as he pulled away. He picked up a small gold PHS from the bedside table. "You owe me for that."

"What is it?" Sephiroth asked, flipping open the sleek case and scrolling through the menu.

"Yuffie's PHS."

Sephiroth's eyebrows rose, but he immediately scrolled to the stored pictures and started deleting. "She is going to kill you."

"I know," Cloud said, yawning into this pillow. "You better make sure it's a great funeral."

"Flowers and everything." Sephiroth promised. Cloud let out another breathy laugh, and Sephiroth smiled in return. "So, how much trouble are Yuffie and I in?"

"You get off the hook for covering an ally in a bad situation," Cloud said. He sighed. "Yuffie- will be Yuffie."

"You shouldn't be too hard on her, she was trying to help." Sephiroth said as he scanned rapidly through her picture files, not registering anything that wasn't primarily black and white. Sephiroth said. "You've been watching Corneo for a while haven't you? I'm surprised you haven't acted yet."

"Right now WolfHaven wants him monitored," Cloud said looking slightly vexed. "'Considerations' they tell me."

"And this evening was- what?"

Cloud gave a small smile. "You know, Corneo actually kidnapped Yuffie once, her and another girl, a Turk. I don't think Yuffie has ever forgiven him for getting the drop on her."

So, it _was_ a personal grudge then, but why didn't Corneo recognize her. Did they come from different futures? They must have. "Will she be in trouble with WolfHaven then?"

"I don't know. No harm seems to have been done," Cloud said with a shrug. His speech starting to get slow and thick with sleep.

With a quiet beep the last photo of him from Yuffie's PHS was deleted. Sephiroth snapped it shut and set it on the nightstand. He rolled over to press against Cloud's back with one arm draped around his waist.

In the quiet stillness doubts and questions started to creep back in. If Cloud and Yuffie were from the future, why would WolfHaven bring someone from the future to do their dirty work? Native soldiers and mercenaries would probably be cheaper. _Never mind_, he thought, _stupid question._ ShinRa had a lock down on the process of creating SOLDIERs. If WolfHaven needed SOLDIER level fighters, and they definitely did if they wanted to take him down, a future where ShinRa's choke hold had loosened on either the technology or the individuals were the best options.

But why wouldn't Cloud just talk to him about it? What didn't he want Sephiroth to know? Cloud had already said more tonight then he had previously, ever. Sephiroth wasn't sure what had changed, and he was glad for it, but it wasn't enough. Earlier he had been contemplating keeping what Corneo told him to himself, but if Cloud was aware that Sephiroth knew what WolfHaven really was, maybe he would open up a little more.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked into Cloud's shoulder. He was half wishing that Cloud was already asleep, even though he knew that Cloud wasn't, just so he wouldn't have to take this leap into the unknown.

"Hmm?" Cloud half-turned to look at him, and Sephiroth could see the outline of his cheekbone in the blue Mako glow from Cloud's eyes.

Sephiroth's mouth was dry and he swallowed hard before choosing his words carefully. "I spoke with Corneo a little before Yuffie joined us."

Cloud went perfectly still for a moment, not even breathing, before he rolled onto his back and looked at Sephiroth fully with blue eyes shuttered and emotionless. "And?"

"He said he was from the future," Sephiroth said, carefully watching Cloud's reaction. "A future. He said that he was funding the anti-ShinRa groups to make sure that it didn't happen…" Sephiroth outlined most of what Corneo said, about the "machine" and about another Sephiroth. He kept the key to himself. "Answers" Corneo had said. If that key was truly the only answers he would be getting he wouldn't give it up. Not even to Cloud.

As he spoke Cloud a troubled crease marred his brow. "A machine that draws power directly from life." Cloud shook his head. "That's—I want to say to that's unbelievable, but we all knew that ShinRa wouldn't just stop."

"We?" Sephiroth asked. "WolfHaven?"

"No," Cloud shifted uncomfortably, but he answered the question. "At the time we were working with AVALANCE."

"The terrorists?"

"It was different, then. We were different," Cloud said. Then sighed. "No, we weren't. We blew up one reactor. The ends justified the means if it means stopping ShinRa, or Meteorfall."

"But the-" Sephiroth stopped the words. _The Meteorfall at the North Crater was thousands of years ago_, but in Cloud's timeline there was another much more recent. That Cloud somehow stopped. "So, you really are from the future."

"A future," Cloud said softly, staring up into the darkness. "We've changed things so much that future—those people—are lost."

"Was it very bad?" The disk didn't make it seem like Cloud's future was bad. However, the bits and pieces he heard from Don Corneo and Zack about their futures made him worry about the things not said. Cloud didn't answer. His expression was shuttered and clouded with dark thoughts that Sephiroth couldn't begin to guess at. He turned away. Sephiroth pressed another light kiss against Cloud's shoulder. "But you're here now, and we can make it better."

When he spoke, Cloud's voice was rough. "You should get some sleep. I'm sure ShinRa will have you running in the morning."

He had shut down again. Feeling stung, Sephiroth pulled away. "You're right. I should head back to ShinRa."

He sat at the edge of the bed silently contemplating Cloud laying there in the darkness. Sephiroth wanted to trust Cloud. And he did. But when the stakes were his own sanity—when he could feel everything shearing off around him into deadly sharp edges—he couldn't help but wonder if Cloud's secrets weren't in fact making things worse.

Decision made, he picked up Yuffie's PHS and retreated to the bathroom to dress in his uniform. He found that had been knocked to the floor from the toilet seat beside the bathtub. How it escaped being drenched by the cold spray Sephiroth didn't know, but was grateful for it. The dress and accompanying accoutrements had already been tossed into the garbage. It seemed like a waste of a lot of money, but he was _never_ going to do that again. He settled his PHS and broadsword into place, and as he made his way back through Cloud's darkened room and out into the large living space.

The rest of the suite was dark, except for a line of warm yellow light from beneath Yuffie's door. He knocked softly to avoid alerting Cloud's acute hearing and slipped inside.

"Hey! You can't come in here! I could've been naked," Yuffie protested.

"But you're not." She was sprawled on her bed—in shorts and a cropped tank top—half hanging off of the mattress as she reached underneath it with one arm.

"But I could have been!" She was twisted uncomfortably to look up at him. The bed was stripped down to its sheets and the rest of the room was thoroughly trashed with cabinets open and drawers emptied onto the floor.

"Looking for something?" He asked holding up her PHS.

"Son of a Bajang!" She leaped up from the bed to snatch it out of his grasp. She opened it up and started rapidly pressing buttons. She swore at it in Wusheng. "Some people should not be allowed Steal."

"So, I- I was wondering if you would still be willing to tell me about the future you and Cloud came from," Sephiroth winced at the awkwardness. She spun around and waved the open PHS at him.

"You do this, and you come by wanting favors?" she asked incredulously, and loudly. She snapped it shut and crossed her arms with a wicked grin on her face. "Well, it's a good thing I'd made back-ups or you'd really be in trouble." Yuffie's expression turned quizzical. "I thought that you said you were going to wait until Cloud told you."

"He's not going to tell me anything," Sephiroth said letting a little more of his unhappiness at this situation leak into his voice then it intended. "I thought if I know more about where you, and he, came from I would be able to understand _why_ and-," he ground to a halt, never having gotten this far into what he would do once he did finally understand what was going on.

"So, what did you want to know?" Yuffie asked as she tried to discreetly kick her dirty laundry under the bed.

"I-" There were so many things he wanted to know, he hardly knew where to start. Looking for inspiration he glanced around. A familiar face from collection of framed pictures clustered on top of a large dresser caught his eye. Veld's missing Turk, looking no different in the picture then he did in the WolfHaven video. "Who is this? He looks- familiar."

"Really?" She gave an inelegant snort. "Well, I suppose you spent time in the same lab."

"Pardon?" The only 'lab' he had been in was Hojo's and Deepground. That he remembered. But he already knew that his early memory was not good.

"Never mind. That's Vincent. He's an old friend. It's too bad we haven't been able to wake him up," Yuffie said with a sigh. "On the other hand, it's not like we could get him to crawl out of his coffin. He only ever moved his ass on account of you."

"Me?" Sephiroth asked. What did Veld's missing Turk have to do with him? Yuffie's oblique hints were just as annoying in their own way as Cloud's determined silence and vague statements.

"Oh, he had this wallowing in his own guilt and misery thing going on," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "We only got him to come out of his self-imposed exile because you were all crazy and trying to destroy the world. He felt guilty because- well, I never really understood why he felt guilty. It's not like he had any control over Hojo or you."

Sephiroth opened his mouth and closed it several times, trying to gather his thoughts together. Yuffie was watching him with a crooked half-smile on her face, obviously enjoying his bewilderment. "I was trying to destroy the world?"

She nodded silently.

"How?"

"Giant rock from space." She said it was such aplomb that he knew she had to be telling the truth, crazy as it sounded, but then very little had made sense in his life since Cloud and WolfHaven turned everything upside down.

"Meteorfall?" He asked, what else could it be? She looked disappointed that he was able to figure it out, but nodded. He took a shaky breath trying to figure out his next question.

Yuffie plopped down on the bed, bouncing a few times on the mattress before leaning back on her elbows. "Cloud thinks he can stop it from happening it at all. I think that's wishful thinking on his part."

"Why?" Sephiroth asked hesitantly, wary of her answer, but unable to do anything else. It seemed perfectly clear to him that they—Cloud and WolfHaven—were working to control events. If she didn't believe it was possible, why was she even here.

"You and ShinRa destroyed Wutai. You ground my people under the heel of your boots, and spat us out like we were nothing," she said bluntly. He fought back the urge to flinch, even as a detached part of his brain, one that sounded a little too much like Hojo for Sephiroth's peace of mind, scoffed at her mixed metaphors. "Entire villages where put to the torch and razed, some with civilians, women and children, still trapped in their homes. Rice paddies were flooded with poison. The tainted grain was left to rot in the fields, and the people starved. And _you_ didn't have to be crazy to do it."


	21. Chapter 21

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 21

… … …

"I did that?" Sephiroth asked, stunned by Yuffie's revelations. She nodded. He wanted to say that 'no, he wouldn't'. If he was given that order today, he wouldn't. If a war was fought he would fight it. But there were lines. He took a shake breath. But if he had been given those orders, six months ago, a year ago? Before Cloud's training? Sephiroth wondered, if he'd had even more years with only ShinRa's corporate and military culture, would his other self had even thought of another way. "How can you stand to be around me?"

"Because I am awesome at compartmentalization," Yuffie said, flashing him a huge grin and a thumbs up. "It helps that you're not really you. I mean, sometimes you totally act like you. Because you are you, and that's creepy. But for the most part you're just you, and that's okay."

Sephiroth blinked and tried to run through that tangle of words with no luck. He shook his head and tried another tack. "Is that why you decided to come here? The future was so terrible?"

"Not, really," Yuffie said with a shrug. She rolled up to lean on one arm. Sephiroth half wished he could tie her to a chair, just to hold her _still_ for a moment. "Sure, we had some near disasters, but they had all been averted and people were working past it. Rebuilding, ya' know?" She tilted her head to one side as she thought carefully about the question. "Things were quieting down, then some guys from WolfHaven came by. They told us that they needed Cloud's help tracking down a thief who stole information and was screwing around with the order of events."

"Corneo?" Sephiroth asked.

"Uh-huh." Yuffie nodded. "As payment for Cloud helping them get their thief under control, Cloud would get to… help make things better."

He hoped that wasn't a euphemism for 'kill Sephiroth.' "I thought you said the future wasn't bad?"

"It wasn't, but it wasn't great either," Yuffie said quickly. "We lost some important people along the way. And I know that, regardless of what he might say, Cloud has a lot of regrets."

Sephiroth nodded. Much of what she said filled in holes and confirmed things that he suspected. If Sephiroth caused the Meteorfall that killed their friend—friends, how many _had_ been lost?—killing him before the event occurred was a sound plan. Though he recognized the tactical value in the plan, part of him still cried out that it wasn't _fair_ he hadn't _done_ anything yet.

"But he had a lot to stay for, too." Yuffie pointed at one of the pictures. Sephiroth was surprised to see that it was a photo of Cloud. He looked happier than Sephiroth had ever seen him. Even though he wasn't smiling, there was a light in Cloud's eyes that had nothing to do with Mako. Next to him were two people smiling broadly. "That's Tifa and Denzel."

The woman with long dark hair stood next to Cloud in the picture. Though she didn't touch him, the way her body was turned towards him, open and unprotected as her head was turned away, focused on the camera, spoke volumes about their relationship. Between them stood a boy a little older then Rufus with dark blond hair and a possessive hold of Cloud's arm. Sephiroth felt like the air had been pulled from his lungs. Cloud had a family.

"How-" _how was it possible? _Sephiroth bit back that particular question.

"Denzel was a foundling from after Meteorfall. Kid lost his real parents and latched on to Cloud, and Tifa," Yuffie explained without him needing to articulate the question. "When he heard about the WolfHaven Project he wanted to go back, too. Cloud put his foot down. Everyone knew that the first chance that kid got, he'd run away to join SOLDIER like Cloud. He'd already tried to join the WRO, but Reeve nixed that idea."

Sephiroth took another look at the picture. "He's what twelve? That's old enough."

"_Now_, it is. Reeve raised the age limit to join the WRO to sixteen and a lot of companies and governments followed suit," Yuffie said. "Anyways, the whole situation was ripping Cloud up real bad. Then Tifa put her foot down, told him to go, and that she would stay and look after Denzel."

"What was she to Cloud?" Sephiroth asked, already half afraid of the answer.

"Oh, those two," Yuffie let out another sigh. "I only wish I had someone like that. Cloud's loved her _forever._ When they got together, it was inevitable. They're both from Nibelheim, you know. She was the one who found him and helped put his memories back together after Hojo scrambled his brain. No one else understands Cloud like she does. Which is probably just as well, I don't think anyone else would put up with his moody ass. I sure wouldn't."

_I would._ Sephiroth thought. He _had_ been. Sephiroth stared at the picture through narrow eyes. "I thought-"

"What?" Yuffie prodded when he didn't complete the question. Sephiroth hesitated a moment before continuing.

"I thought he was gay." Yuffie stared at him incredulously before bursting into laughter.

"Cloud? You're kidding right? He is like, the straightest guy I know. I mean sure we teased him about… and Aerith could talk _anybody_ into-" Yuffie wiped at her cheeks, then paused as her eyes widening with a look of dawning horror and pity. "You _like_ him? Like, _like-_ like him?"

Sephiroth took a step back, a defensive retreat that turned into a stumbling route as he reached for the door. He couldn't breathe, and Cloud really didn't- One hand rose to press against his chest, half expecting to find that his had been left gutted and bleeding and somehow hadn't noticed.

"Oh, Leviathan's _tears, _I'm sorry. I-" Yuffie said. He never noticed her standing or reaching for him. Sephiroth knocked away her hand with a snarl.

He opened the door with a sharp jerk and left, passing through the suite and opulent halls of the hotel barely registered as Sephiroth left the building. He was on the bike and two thirds of the way to the Sector Eight Gate and the open wastes before his brain caught up to what his instincts already knew. The simulations in the training room wouldn't be enough to wear down the tangle of emotions eating at him.

Once out in the open it didn't take long for a pack of Devil Rides to find him and box him in. Sephiroth let he lip curl into a silent snarl as he sent his bike careening into the monster to his left. He could feel the strange organic metal twist and crumple under his fingers as he crushed it. The thing howled before a sharp blow slammed it to the ground, killing it. The sword was in his hands before the monster had even skidded to a halt on the barren ground.

It was cathartic to focus all the pain and confusion and humiliation into pure action. No thinking, no feeling, just movement and the crack of bone and the spatter of blood. Unlike the sahagin in the sewers, when faced with a greater predator the creatures of the wastelands banded together to bring it down. Sephiroth soon found himself facing greater enemies than rides and fangs. Sweepers and other monstrosities of technology and biology that had never been catalogued in the area fell under Sephiroth's sword.

Even after the metal in his hands weakened and shattered, Sephiroth kept fighting. He was lost in the peace of the eye of the storm. The sound of death and battle was accompanied by the musical sound of the seven feather charm. Still tied to Ashura's hilt the charm worked itself free of his boot and chimed merrily with every step.

How long he was out there Sephiroth had no idea. He finally wore himself out and collapsed alone at the top of one of the ridges that overlooked the wastes and the distant Midgar. Absently his hand pressed over his chest again.

He no longer felt like he'd been dealt a mortal wound, but the edges were still raw. He still didn't want to think of what all it had _meant_, if Cloud never really cared. If everything were the means to some particular end, Sephiroth almost wished that Cloud _had_ killed him back in the Train Graveyard. It would have been kinder.

Painful revelations aside, Sephiroth mind still kept working, piecing together a comment here and there to form a whole that was not at all expected. _An old friend,_ she'd said, as had Zack, scratched and bleeding, in Nibelheim. Nibelheim that was strangely familiar. Those golden claws would certainly be able to do some significant damage if the man ever put his mind to it. Sephiroth fished out his PHS and called Veld. After a few moments the voicemail picked up his call.

"I may have found your missing Turk," Sephiroth said and hung up. That should get Veld's attention. He snapped the PHS shut with a sharp click and bent down to tuck the small charm back into his boot. Some of the silver paint had chipped off to show the dull tin underneath. It was an apt metaphor for how he felt at the moment. The shine had worn off, the truth underneath was a little grimmer but proved that he was a little stronger if nothing else.

Now, if only he could remember what happened to the damn bike.

… … …

Sephiroth had debated several scenarios of presenting the cure to Angeal and Genesis. In the end, by the time he got back to the building he was too tired play around with theatrics. When he saw them in the rec room on their barracks floor he simply dropped the small syringe in a surprised Angeal's hand and walked away.

When he got to his bunk, Sephiroth was surprised to find that, yes, he could still manage to muss up a measure of anger. His computer was blinking with a promotion notice to SOLDIER First Class from Heidegger. Not that he cared anymore. It couldn't give him what he wanted.

It probably never could have.

Sephiroth stripped out of his uniform and crawled into bed. He wished idly that he could wake up and find that the past day had been some surreal nightmare.

His PHS's ringing awoke Sephiroth out of a sound sleep. The vague sense of passing time and a lingering stiffness in his limbs before he even checked the clock let him know that he had been asleep for longer than usual. He could probably still sleep the rest of the day away, but it was already past noon. He eventually fumbled the PHS open and gave a slurred greeting.

"Where," the voice on the other end of the line demanded.

"One condition," Sephiroth said. He could practically hear Veld grinding his teeth on the other end of the line. "I come with you."

"This isn't SOLDIER business," Veld said coldly. Sephiroth smiled. It wasn't a flat out no, and that was practically a yes.

"I have it on good authority that Vincent Valentine will not be inclined to co-operate unless I am with you." Okay, so that may have been stretching it a bit, but Veld was his best bet at getting back out to Nibelheim again. If he tried to wait for something to come up on the mission boards, who knows how long he would be waiting. Getting these answers was becoming an end to itself, and right now it was the only thing Sephiroth had left. He was not going to be left waiting when he knew that the information he was looking for was just out of his reach. Nibelheim was where he had the 'psychotic break,' the answers would be there. He would find out what they were keeping from him. And once he had it, he was going to shove it in Cloud's face.

"Fine," Veld said. Lost in thought, Sephiroth almost missed the other man's capitulation.

"Nibelheim." There was a long silence. Sephiroth knew that Veld was also considering how close they must have been on that last mission of his. "When will we be leaving?"

"How soon can you be at the tarmac?"

"Give me twenty minutes," Sephiroth said.

"Pad 312," Veld said and disconnected. Sephiroth mentally cursed himself for not giving himself more time. He could really use another shower, blood and grease had matted in his hair and dried sweat left grit and salt abrading his skin under his clothes.

He skipped the ladder and simply rolled out of bed to land lightly on the floor. The uniforms in his locker had already been changed to the black of First Class. Sephiroth hesitated a moment, but he had nothing else clean, and if he didn't wear the new uniform people would wonder why. No doubt his promotion had already been listed in the company notices. So, he dressed quickly and finger-combed his hair into a rough plait. A splash of water on his face and he almost looked human again instead of some rampaging monster.

Grabbing a new sword from supply lockers on the SOLDIER floor almost made him late, but Veld was waiting for him in a small, sleek helicopter. Sephiroth tried not to wince at the thought of the long flight in the noise and the cramped space. Veld must want to get there as soon as possible if he was opting for a helicopter instead of a slower airship. Sephiroth didn't want to think about the strings and the rank Veld would have had to pull to arrange this, complete with in-air refueling as there were no landing bases, no land, between the two continents for them to stop at.

Veld gave Sephiroth a raised eyebrow at his no doubt still disheveled look, but he didn't comment as Sephiroth climbed in and strapped down his sword and himself. The flight crew shut and sealed the door. They were in the air barely before Sephiroth had hit the seat. Veld made a point of placing the in-flight communication headset on. Sephiroth did the same.

"You look like shit," Veld said with little preamble.

"It's been a rough- day," Sephiroth said, it already felt like forever and he really didn't want to talk about it. Not to Veld. Reeve, maybe. Though Sephiroth cringed at the thought of even that.

Fortunately, Veld seemed willing to let that subject drop. "Tell me what you know."

"Cloud Strife's WolfHaven associate confirmed contact with Vincent Valentine," Sephiroth said, letting the impersonal language of a formal briefing build a wall between himself and his emotions. "It was implied that Valentine was involved with Hojo and the early SOLDIER program though no details were provided. Since he was reported dead Valentine has remained in a self-imposed isolation, and resisted attempts to draw him from Nibelheim."

"But you think you can persuade him?" Veld asked, his voice came across flat over the headset, but Sephiroth imagined that he was both curious and incredulous.

"I-," Sephiroth hesitated, trying to explain the certainty he felt into words, though even this leap of logic and faith was difficult for him to follow. "The associate claimed that the last time Valentine left Nibelheim was only due to my name being involved in the—project."

Veld must have picked up Sephiroth's hesitation, he gave Sephiroth a narrow eyed and thoughtful look. "What project?"

"I wasn't able to get that information," Sephiroth said quickly. There was no way he was going to get into time travel and possible futures without Reeve there to back up what he was saying with some sort of semi-plausible explanation. Veld didn't look like he believed Sephiroth, but the Turk seemed to be more accommodating then Sephiroth was expecting and let this one slide as well. It made Sephiroth wonder what Veld really knew. "Were you able to glean anything from the disk?"

"Nothing directly relating to Valentine," Veld said, turning his head to look out over the expanse of clouds that stretched out below them. "I was able to verify the presence of ShinRa facilities in Nibelheim in addition to the reactor, a large residential building with extensive underground excavation and development was constructed by the Science Department under Gast Faramis and expanded under Hojo."

Sephiroth nodded as he listened. Both Hojo and ShinRa seemed unreasonably fond of secrets within secrets and a hidden lab would be just up their alley.

"We will assess the mansion and grounds before moving on to the reactor," Veld said. "Once Valentine has been located the primary objective is to convince him to return to duty. The secondary objective is to determine Valentine's reason for abandoning duty and act accordingly. In ShinRa's best interests."

'In ShinRa's best interest' was practically the Turk's motto. The one guiding principal that directed everything they did, no matter how off the books or hidden from the light of day. The flat affectation in Veld's expression as he said it sent a chill down Sephiroth's spine. He hoped, for Valentine's sake, the man had a _very _good explanation.

With that Veld removed the headset and set back on its hook. The briefing was over. Sephiroth turned away to do the same. He wished that they had taken an airship. It would have let him catch up on some more sleep, impossible in the noise helicopter.

Little had changed since Sephiroth and the troopers had left Nibelheim a few days ago. If there were a few more children playing tag around the water tower it wasn't really noticeable. Sephiroth reflexively looked for the blond head of the younger Cloud, or any hint of Zack, but found nothing.

A few of the natives paused to watch them carefully at they walked through the town. The flight crew and helicopter had been left in an open area just outside of the town. Veld led him to the large sprawling building on the ridge that Sephiroth had noticed earlier. The place still managed to look dark and foreboding, even in the bright summer sun. They slipped easily between the gates and up to the main door. It was locked.

Sephiroth could feel the hum of a Barrier being activated as they tested the door. A cheaper Barrier lock would just protect the lock and could be easily foiled by going around it. The better systems when installed by someone who knew what they were doing threaded the protection throughout the entire building. Judging by the thrum of Mako and magic across Sephiroth senses, this was one of the better systems. Now he knew that they found something. ShinRa didn't put this sophisticated a Barrier lock on just anything.

Veld had come prepared though. He took out a keychain that consisted of a single key and a ring of Materia slots, each one a shard of a Destruct Materia that was paired with a Barrier Materia that ShinRa, and probably a few others, used commonly for Barrier locks. The commercial-grade Barrier-Destruct Materia were manufactured in pairs and the Barrier would only be unlocked with the matching Destruct shard. Veld painstakingly slid a shard from the mounting ring to the key and tested it against the lock. When nothing happened he moved to the next Materia shard.

"Wouldn't it be easier to carry a single weapons grade Destruct?" Sephiroth asked. The higher quality Materia would be able to blast through any Barrier or Ward.

"Only if you don't want to lock the door behind you," Veld said with a shake of his head. "They have a tendency to melt the wires and crack the weaker Barrier Materia."

"Hm," Sephiroth said softly. He leaned against one of the columns framing the porch, waiting for Veld to finish testing the lock, and studied the grounds surrounding the mansion. They may have once been a generous expanse of gardens and tended lawns, though it was difficult to tell anymore, beside the onions and mandragora from the kitchen garden, everything else had been overrun by grasses and dandelions.

"Damn." Veld's soft curse drew Sephiroth's attention back to him. He was frowning at the sealed and warded door, the skeleton key no longer in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Sephiroth asked.

"None of the Materia work," Veld said.

Sephiroth frowned. "I thought all locking pairs were supposed to be registered with the Materia Sciences Department?"

"They are," Veld said shortly. "Someone's been flouting Company policy. I'd hate to have to destroy half the building to get inside-"

"We may not have to," Sephiroth said, searching his uniform pockets. He let out a soft sigh of relief when his fingers closed on cool metal. He pulled out the small brass key, stamped with ShrinRa's logo and a small green chip of Materia embedded into the metal. Veld's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he stepped out of the way to let Sephiroth try the key. The door opened with a soft click.

"Do I even want to know how you got that key?" Veld asked.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Long story."

"I'm sure." Though he let it slide for now, it was equally as clear that he would be expecting to hear the full story later.

Inside the mansion was just as neglected as it was outside. Sunlight filtered through dusty windows provided an eerie twilight quality to the dim interior. Drab area rugs that had been worn bare in place were spread out across hardwood floors varnish yellowed with age. Closed doors and open hallways led off into the wings of the building. Sephiroth could hear the scratching of claw on wood and plaster and the chitter of monsters that roamed the abandoned rooms. A wide staircase led upstairs.

"Where to first?" He asked Veld.

"There won't be anything of interest in the building itself. It's mostly a front for the labs in caverns below," Veld said. "We'll need to find the access point. Reports I've received from Turks stationed here previously indicate that it's upstairs, but in light of everything else any information received may be suspect."

"You don't trust your Turks?"

"I don't trust anybody," Veld said curtly. "We'll start upstairs and work our way down."

Sephiroth knew better then to ask if Veld trusted him. If anything he was even more suspect. It was oddly comforting that at least he understood Veld's position and his reasoning.

The rooms upstairs were usually locked, but those were plain locks easily broken. Many were bedrooms ranging from small and cramped to large and lavishly well appointed. _Someone was abusing ShinRa funding,_ Sephiroth though with a wry smile as they worked their way through the rooms. Finance would have a field day auditing this place's records. Some of the rooms though seemed more like small libraries containing nothing but books. Sephiroth flipped through a few randomly selected tomes and found a wide range of topics from history and science to literature all crammed into overflowing shelves with no sense of organization that he was able to determine.

During their exploration they were occasionally attacked by floating balloon-like monsters that were fairly simple to deal with. Veld held his own with a simple and severe looking handgun slotted with a Lightning-Elemental Materia pair that flashed golden light with every shot.

Sephiroth focused more on the monsters and left finding the hidden doors mostly to Veld. He wasn't sure what they were looking for. How did someone go about finding a secret door? Discreetly he watched Veld and echoed him on alternating surfaces. He tapped walls and examined cracks. He even tapped walls that he was fairly certain had no secret doors to compare the sound.

As frustrating as the search was, it wasn't a complete waste of time. He did find a few potions and ethers, as well as a Counter Attack Materia. It was raw and unleveled, but ever since he had seen Cloud's he had wanted one. And a ShrinRa Beta, it had a few extra single slots then the bangle he was currently wearing. Veld showed no interest in their unexpected bounty, so Sephiroth felt no guilt at swapping it out.

"It has to be here," Veld announced pointing at a curved stone wall that looked like part of a preexisting structure the East Wing they were in had been built around. While Veld fussed with the Scan Materia that was slotted into some odd machine, Sephiroth removed Ashura's broken hilt from his boot and rapped against the stone, decorative metal cap at the pommel rang loudly. The seven feather charm chimed with mocking laughter. He moved to another section of the wall and tapped again. Then lower. No difference. Through the doorway into one of the second story rooms, rapped the wall just inside the door. Nothing. He tried again a few feet over.

Sephiroth thought he imagined the dull thud at first. He rapped the wall again. There was definitely something off about this section. He reached out with his empty hand to grab at a protrusion of stone and dug his fingers in. The plaster façade crumbled into white powder. He glanced over his shoulder at Veld who had followed him into the room and was now watching Sephiroth curiously with his head tilted slightly, but no other expression on his face.

Sephiroth traced the edges of the door. The seam wandered back and forth between the stones like it was just another crack in the mortar and nearly invisible to the eye. He couldn't find the latch. He couldn't tell if the hidden hinges would swing the door outwards or inwards. In either case, this was the weak point. Sephiroth applied shoulder to the door, throwing his weight behind it. After a couple of sharp blows the door jerked sharply and had moved inwards about an inch. It took another couple of hard pushes before Sephiroth realized that the door was on a track that slid to the side rather than swinging inwards.

The secret door opened onto a circular stairwell that descended into the depths. Sephiroth had no doubt that it lead straight into the basement level. He stepped forward setting his foot on the old crumbling wood staircase. At the soft ringing of his PHS Sephiroth stepped back to let Veld descend alone as he answered the call.

"Sephiroth." At Cloud's soft voice Sephiroth almost hung up. "Yuffie told me what happened."

"Did she?" he asked coldly.

"I'm sorry, I wanted a chance to explain," Cloud said. "She doesn't know everything."

Which didn't mean that she had been wrong. Sephiroth felt a twisting pain in his chest. "Does anyone?"

There was a long silence before Cloud spoke again. "I never lied to you."

Sephiroth gave a short bitter laugh. "Of course you haven't. That would require telling me something to begin with. But that's okay, I can get my own answers."

"Your own-" Cloud stopped mid-question with a hitch of his breath audible over the PHS connection. "Sephiroth, where are you?"

"Nibelheim," he said shortly before he snapped the PHS shut and stepped down into the darkness.

Veld was waiting for him at the bottom. "Is everything okay?'

"Fine," Sephiroth said with a short snarl that was easily interpreted as 'anything but.'

The underground facility was a combination of the area's natural caverns and rough hewn stone to expand and connect, or close off, different areas. It was cool and the walls were damp. Dim yellow lighting illuminated the grey stone. Boxes and equipment were piled haphazardly in the open area. While there were several alcoves there only seemed to be one other actual exit, a tunnel to the north.

In the next room, boxes and equipment gave way to stacks of narrow coffins laid out just as haphazardly as the boxes in the previous room. After that the rough stone gave way to sheet metal and steel mesh walkways. The walls were lined with books, journals and reports. Small guard slots with commercial grade Elemental-Water pairs were everywhere to protect the books and repel the dampness that seeped from the walls.

The lab itself was sequestered in the very back. Like the rest of Nibelheim the place felt vaguely familiar. It was a feeling that he was growing to despise. The hidden lab was dark and oppressive, even with the emergency lights.

"So, where is he?" Sephiroth asked. The Turk had to be here somewhere. He _knew_ it. It was the only scenario that made any sense.

"Maybe he left?" Veld suggested. He powered up one of the computers. "I'll see if there is anything in the computers."

"Unlikely." The computers and Mako tubes were covered in a thick layer of dust. It was obvious that no one had used them in some time. He turned and walked out of the lab, even being in an abandoned lab made him feel more than a little jumpy. Perhaps someone in town would have seen the man. Even a Turk would need to get supplies from somewhere and the next general store was down in the valley.

Sephiroth was almost to the ladder when he stopped dead in his tracks and spun around. The move was so sudden that Veld—who had followed him, leaving the computer to boot up—nearly crashed into him from following behind.

"What?" Veld asked, glancing around and reflexively reaching for his gun.

"They 'never could get him to crawl out of his _coffin_," Sephiroth said, echoing what Yuffie had told him that didn't make any sense at the time.

"_What_?" Veld asked again, confusion and irritation adding volume he may not have intended.

Not bothering to answer the question Sephiroth stalked towards the nearest coffin and ripped the cover off. Inside was a roughly humanoid creature, not unlike the Makonoids from the video. It was clearly dead, but even so the Mako left an unnatural glow in the creature's blank eyes. Sephiroth shoved the coffin aside and checked the next one. "He'll be in one of these coffins. She said that he wouldn't leave his coffin, so he _must_ be here."

Veld didn't ask again. Instead he turned to a coffin on the other side of the room and pried the lid off. Systematically they worked their way through the room. Most of the coffins contained the remains of heavily mutated subjects. Sephiroth could only be certain that some had started out as human, but knowing Hojo he wouldn't be surprised to find that all of them had. They couldn't have been locals; a small town like this would notice people missing. They were probably from the Midgar slums where no one would care. The press gangs didn't care where their "recruits" went as long as they got paid for the head count.

A startled cry and the shriek of twisting metal had Sephiroth spinning around with his sword drawn. Veld was standing over an open coffin; his arm had been bent back at an angle. Bright Mako seeped through the dark cloth of his suit at the unnatural bend and dripped across the golden claws that held back Veld's arm. He already had his pistol drawn and pressed to the forehead of the man in the coffin, heedless of the gun pointing at his own. Sephiroth was almost afraid to breathe least he disrupt the frozen tableau.


	22. Chapter 22

A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 22

… … …

"I see you're still using that flashy piece of shit excuse for a gun, Valentine," Veld said. Red eyes slowly blinked at Veld. Guns were lowered and Veld's arm was released.

"Veld," the man, Valentine, rasped. His voice was dry and rusty. "Leave me be."

"We have some questions for you, about the SOLDIER program," Sephiroth said, stepping forward. Valentine looked at him, but there was no recognition in his eyes. Sephiroth felt strangely disappointed, though he knew consciously that there was no reason for the man to recognize him. Even if he truly was involved in SOLDIER, as his glowing Mako-laden eyes suggested, it was before Sephiroth was even born.

"I have nothing to say to you about Hojo's monsters," Valentine said. He turned away from them, curling in on himself the massive three barrel gun clutched in his gloved hand.

"I guess you were wrong," Veld said, stepping away from the open coffin. Sephiroth glanced over at the unexpected retreat. _Why was he giving up so easily? _ "Let's go, Sephiroth."

Even as he said the words Veld made no move towards the exit. Confused, neither did Sephiroth. Valentine, however, shot up out of the coffin.

"Sephiroth?" He asked. His red eyes glancing first to Veld then to Sephiroth. He stepped out of the coffin and took a few hesitant steps forward, not apparently fully aware of his actions. "Sephiroth?" he mouthed the word again to himself. Looking down, as he stopped as he noticed how far he had stepped from his prison/haven and turned to Veld. "How long?"

"Sixteen years," Veld said. "Three months and four days since your last report."

"Tch." Vincent turned back to stare at Sephiroth. "I'm surprised they bothered to send anyone at all. Hojo probably reported me dead before the casing cooled."

Veld's eyebrows shot up. "I don't suppose you'd care to expand on that."

"Not particularly," Valentine said.

"That wasn't really a-" Veld trailed off as Valentine stepped forward again

"I'd never thought I'd get the chance to say this," he said softly, as he reached out hesitantly as if he wanted to touch Sephiroth, to make sure he was real, but unable to complete the gesture. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Sephiroth asked.

"For everything," Valentine said simply. "I tried to stop him, I couldn't. Believe me if I'd have known that there was even a chance that you had survived I wouldn't have let him-"

"Stop who?" Sephiroth asked, his voice nearly a dry croak in this throat.

Valentine blinked at him, surprise showing briefly before his features returning to the uniform wooden blankness. "Hojo, of course."

Sephiroth felt like things were things were twisting sideways. How could someone try to stop Hojo? _Why_ would they? Even at his most depraved he was fully backed by ShinRa. Only fools and terrorists—a more dangerous brand of fools—stood against ShinRa. And Valentine was a Turk. Sephiroth could only choke out a baffled, "_Why_?"

"Because he's a dangerous madman who doesn't understand what he's doing," Vincent snarled and started to pace like a restless beast. Veld and Sephiroth instinctively stepped back to give him more space. "He wasn't a geneticist, that was Hollander, he was a biologist brought in by Gast. Couldn't understand that the thing was killing her, I thought it was killing you both."

"Killing who, Val?" Veld asked softly. Sephiroth was glad that he wasn't the only one at a loss here. Valentine stopped and turned back to them. He barely glanced at Veld before turning back to Sephiroth. The look that flashed across his features was of such raw pain that Sephiroth almost didn't _want_ to know.

"Your mother," he said shortly.

"Jenova?" Sephiroth asked. Valentine recoiled as if struck.

"No, Lucrecia—is that what Hojo told you? That _thing_ was your mother?"

"Hojo only ever said that my mother's name was Jenova," Sephiroth said, carefully neutral. Surely, Hojo hadn't meant to imply that the strange hobbled-together monster pulled from the Northern Crater was his mother. It wasn't even _alive_.

Valentine snorted. "Somehow, I'm not surprised."

"As fascinating as all of this is," Veld said. "It still doesn't answer the question of _why_ you felt the sudden need to abandon your post, for what?" Veld gave Valentine a narrow-eyed look as he trailed off. "A self inflicted punishment for something you couldn't have stopped anyways." Veld pressed his good hand to his forehead with a pained expression. The other, Sephiroth could finally see, was a prosthesis made of metal, wires, and Materia, now crushed and useless. "I feel old. I'd forgotten about your streak of melodrama. We were what, seventeen?"

Sephiroth gave Valentine an appraising look. He looked older then seventeen, but still young. Not old enough to be Veld's contemporary.

"Twenty-five," Valentine corrected, sending Veld a reproachful look. He stepped back, drawing in on himself, even the tattered red cape seemed to act of its own accord to curl protectively around his body. "You wouldn't understand."

"Ifrit's Hell I wouldn't," Veld glowered back. "I read the files. Hojo had a choke hold on her project's funding. She would've done _anything_ to keep it from being axed."

Sephiroth kept glancing between the two of them and wondered what all of this had to do with anything, but he was too fascinated to interrupt them.

Valentine gave Veld a startled look. "She didn't say anything."

"Of course she didn't," Veld said. "I never met the woman, but even I could tell she was too damn naive for her own good. She probably never believed that he'd actually do it, but she let him talk her into infecting an unborn fetus _while it was still inside her _with Jenova cells anyways, just to _see what it would do_ with unfettered access to growing stem cells."

Sephiroth winced in sympathy at the scenario Veld painted. It was sometimes hard to remember that Hojo could be charming and persuasive when he wanted to be. But he was, and very much so, right up until the moment he didn't need to be anymore. This woman, Lucrecia—his mother, never stood a chance.

"And that doesn't even touch on in issues of paternity," Veld added.

"What?" Sephiroth demanded. Hojo was his father; that had never been an issue in question. He grabbed Veld's shoulder and wrenched the man around to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"According to the files you were born nine months after the marriage contract was signed," Veld said. Sephiroth shrugged, that meant nothing to him. "Pregnancies generally last forty weeks, ten months."

Velentine paled. "No."

"Not that it matters anymore, I suppose," Veld said, coolly watching Valentine. "The marriage gave him de facto paternity at birth regardless of who the biological father was."

"Why are you telling me this?" Valentine's voice was strained with the anguish.

"Because you left a _child_ to that monster," Veld yelled back at him. "So wrapped up in your own gods-damned self-pity-"

"I thought they were dead."

"Well, you were wrong-"

"Excuse me," Sephiroth choked out and staggered back to the exit and the ShinRa mansion. If he had felt like things had been tilted askew earlier, now many of the fundamental things he thought he understood had been turned upside down. "I need some air."

If either Veld or Valentine made any sound of protest, he didn't hear it. Sephiroth didn't stop until he was back outside, away from the musty smells of rotting fabric, rusting steel and growing mold. It was dark outside already, and the sharp night air even in the late summer held a bite of winter snow. He took a deep breath and released the tensions that had built up, clearing his head.

It didn't matter, he decided, what Valentine did or didn't do. Sephiroth was what Hojo had made him. The real question: was that all he had to be? He found himself staring at the Nibelheim reactor in the distance, half hidden by the low ceiling of clouds and haloed by the tarnished gold glow of light pollution from the town below. That was where Jenova was kept. Not just samples of the virus, but the body itself that had been drudged up from the Northern Crater.

He wanted to see it.

Pictures of pictures wasn't the same. He wanted to see the creature that had started everything. Was it really some malevolent being crouched in the core of the Nibelheim reactor like a spider at the center of its web? Or was it just a mindless thing that was as much a tool of Hojo's machinations as everything else he got his hands on? There was only one way to find out.

The trip to the reactor was short, even in the dark. Not even the Nibel wolves were out this late, and everything else had the sense to steer clear of something that had no qualms about wandering in the mountains in the middle of the night. The rickety bridge across a ravine worried him a moment but it held.

The reactor was obviously one of the older models. Thick pipes with rusting bands that leaked the corrosive shimmering Mako ran in and out of the building. Over time it had settled, listing slightly giving it a skewed, nightmarish quality, especially as it was lit with only half of the normal running lights. The doors were locked, but his ShinRa ID card had high enough clearance to give him access. Sephiroth frowned at the standard lock. Hojo clearly hadn't set this up; he would have used the same system as the mansion. So, who did?

He set the thoughts aside and entered the reactor. The main walkway ran upwards towards the control rooms where the computers managed the flow of the Mako. Sephiroth turned away. Jenova would be in the core. Like most, the Nibelheim reactor's core consists of two portions. The larger holding tank, where the freshly drawn Lifestream was held, and a smaller compression chamber, that turned Lifestream into Mako. Facilities that also acted as Materia factories had a third chamber that compressed the Mako further into a solid state. With the exception of the third room most reactors were open space with a metal mesh walkways suspended over pools of glowing liquid green and little else. And that was where the Nibelheim reactor deviated from the norm.

The hanging platforms in the Nibelheim reactor's holding tank were filled with row upon row of egg shaped pods. Sephiroth recognized them from the grainy image that was used in the lecture. He glanced into one of the pods, instead of the makonoids from the lecture there were numerous stripped bones floating in the Mako mixture. The next pod contained large chunks of muscle and tissue from some unidentified monster. The third; Sephiroth couldn't even identify the misshaped yellow organs.

According to the WolfHaven lecture there were supposed to be humanoid monsters in these tanks for the third generations SOLDIER serum, unless Hojo hadn't gotten to that point yet. Instead of creating a single serum, each vat must produce a shot for a particular trait using the active cells or glands that most resembled what they wanted. And it would be easy to switch over once they started mass producing SOLDIERs.

If the Makonoids' tanks were out here—Sephiroth stepped back out onto the main walkway and turned towards the compressor—that meant that Jenova had to be there. If he looked carefully he could see a plate over the door to the compression chamber stamped with JENOVA.

It took a few moments for the Mako to cycle out and for him to open the door. Inside blue emergency lights lined the walkways, and everything was backlit green from the thick Mako sludge below.

In the center of the chamber was a steel angel.

It wasn't what he was expecting. Where was the monster? Where was the corpse from two thousand years ago? Sephiroth stepped up to the metal statue. This was such an odd place to put artwork. He found a small access panel and pressed the single lit button. There was a hiss of hidden machinery and sections of the statue broke apart to slide back out of the way, revealing a single large Mako tank. Inside was Jenova.

The pictures from the WolfHaven video did not do it justice. Dead, grey skin was marbled with blue veins that were a little too large for the humanoid form, and thick ropey blood vessels curled around her lower body to a massive dragon's heart at her feet. She looked like she had died in a fight. The arms and what may have been wings or fins spouting from her back had been roughly torn away. Whatever—whoever she had fought she fought hard; one curling tentacle with hook-like teeth was still wrapped around a dismembered arm. Even the heart had taken some damage; the torn edges of the muscle tissue from deep, bloodless gouges waved gently in the slow current of Mako being pumped in and out of the tank.

"Beautiful, isn't she?"

"Who?" Sephiroth jumped at the oddly familiar voice. He turned to see a man with long silver-hair in a tattered black coat and a SOLDIER First Class Uniform.

The man walked forward. His poison green eyes fixed on the tank. Sephiroth felt his hackles rise when he noticed that the cat-slit eyes were constricted to the thinnest of lines. There was something seriously wrong with this man. Even with the ambient light from the glowing Mako, and running lights Sephiroth _knew_ that his eyes were at partial dilation, because it was still fairly dark in the compression chamber. The reverence in the man's voice when he answered sent chills up Sephiroth's spine. "Mother."

"Who _are_ you?"

The man turned and gave Sephiroth a look of pure derision. "I am what you will be."

"Impossible," Sephiroth said, recoiling back a step instinctively. The other Sephiroth smirked at him.

"You should know better by now," he said, making a soft _tsk_ing noise. He must have come from WolfHaven, through the wormhole, but-

"Why?"

The smug expression slid from his face. "They thought that they could stop us. Defy their god and change their fate." He turned back to face the monster in the tank, he placed one long fingered hand against the thick glass. "We shall do as we were meant from the beginning of time; lay waste to this insignificant prison of a planet and take our place amongst the stars."

They told Sephiroth that he had gone insane in their future worlds, told him the terrible things that he had done. He didn't believe them. He couldn't believe that _he_ could have done those things. But this man could and would, he realized. This is the man that he will become.

"No," Sephiroth said, surprising both of them as he spoke out loud. "I won't let you; I won't be you."

"You think you can stop me?" The other Sephiroth snarled at him. "You? Right now you are nothing more than the chrysalis waiting to be awakened to its true form. What makes you thing that you could possibly stand up to me? You insignificant little worm."

Sephiroth glared back. "It can't be that hard," he retorted. "Cloud stopped you in his future, and so did Zack." He drew his simple broadsword. "And something must have made you come back here to try again. The only real inevitability is your defeat."

This wasn't him. Sephiroth decided, and he would never _be _this. As he lunged the madman stepped forward, opening his arms wide as if to embrace him. Sephiroth sword slid easily through the man's unprotected body, under the ribs then up through the heart and lungs. What startled him was the pain blossoming as something cold and sharp slammed into his abdomen. The man's other arm, the one not holding the sword that had appeared in his hand, curled around Sephiroth in a parody of a hug. He felt the man's blunt nails digging into his scalp. Sephiroth's head was forced to the side until the man's mouth was at Sephiroth's ear. He could feel hot breath against his neck and the other man whispered, like imparting some great secret. "You can't stop me."

Then he pushed Sephiroth back. They both stumbled. The steel of the sword still impaled through Sephiroth's body rang loudly as it struck the metal railing sending shockwaves of pain through his body and driving Sephiroth to his knees. He could only watch in confused horror as the man stumbled against the opposite railing, and actually dragged himself over the waist high barricade, with Sephiroth's sword still lodged in his abdomen, to fall to the burning Mako far below. Insane laughter echoed throughout the reactor chamber long after the body hit the thick liquid far below.

Sephiroth looked down to the sword in his gut. The hilt was distinctly Wusheng in origin. The _tsuba_ at the base of the blade and pressed flush against his stomach was carved hematite. A sinuous Leviathan figure curled around itself in shimmery metallic black. The hilt was wrapped in patterned midnight and black silk, the strips twisting artistically, crisscrossing over each other to provide texture and grip.

He couldn't twist around to see how long the blade was, but if the brief glimpse he had of the sword—and familiarity with his own preferences—meant anything, the sword was an odachi of considerable length. Once he had the sword out he could get a better look at it, and heal the wound.

"Sephiroth!" He started at the sound of Cloud's voice, strident and angry, more than Sephiroth had ever heard from him before.

He looked up to see Cloud at the entrance to the compression chamber, the completed Fusion Swords in his hands. Cloud paused when he saw Sephiroth on the catwalk, but his hard eyes quickly scanned the rest of the chamber and he walked forward cautiously. Sephiroth didn't know how he felt seeing Cloud: hurt, confused…relieved. "Cloud?"

Those hard blue eyes turned to him. They paused over the sword in his gut, but didn't soften. Clouds grip shifted on the hilt, and he turned to face Sephiroth directly. "Why did you do it?"

"I tried to find," Sephiroth paused. Cloud's gaze was disconcerting, and wasn't he the one that was supposed to be angry at Cloud? "Jenova."

Cloud gave a single dismissive shake of his head. "The town."

The town? Sephiroth furrowed his brow in confusion. He had avoided the town. With the mansion on the north side of the small village and the reactor even further north, it made little sense to go into Nibelheim. The confusion must have shown on his face.

"The town," Cloud snarled, stepping forward. "Why did you burn it?"

"Step away from him," Veld ordered. The click of a gun being cocked was surprisingly loud. He hadn't heard him enter, by the way Cloud went completely still Sephiroth figured that he didn't either. Or Valentine, Sephiroth noted the other man a step behind Veld. Valentine didn't have a weapon out, though Sephiroth could see his hand poised unnaturally still, ready for a quick draw in case a second gun was needed.

Cloud didn't step back, merely shifted again so that he could face a threat coming from either the Turks or Sephiroth. Which was laughable, Sephiroth wasn't going to be moving anytime soon. He tried to lift himself up. The edge of the blade scraped on the walkway. If Sephiroth cried out, he couldn't tell. Pain stole the air from his lungs, and starbursts exploded behind his eyes. When Sephiroth could see again both Cloud and Veld had moved closer to him, with Valentine hovering not far beyond.

"He needs help," Cloud spoke softly, but it carried clearly in the still air. The anguish and confusion clear in his eyes even if the emotions were not betrayed in the hard lines of his face.

"Not from you. Step back," Veld ordered in hard tones. Sephiroth could only stare at the other man in surprise as Veld made his way to Sephiroth's side and knelt down. Valentine drew his gun, the elaborately decorated tri-barrel piece that Veld had disparaged earlier, and took up guard. With both hands supporting the gun, he stared down the sight at Cloud unflinchingly. Only after Cloud was covered did Veld holster his gun and look down at Sephiroth. Looking at the length of the blade protruding from Sephiroth's back, he appeared at a loss. Sephiroth gave a soft huff of laughter to see the normally collected Turk faced with something he _wasn't_ trained to deal with; he was probably more familiar with gunshot wounds. Sephiroth winced as his poorly timed amusement pulled on his injury.

"Here, this needs to be disassembled," Sephiroth said as he reached out, careful not to jar or move the weapon, to point at the small peg hidden among the folds of night blue silk. The moment his hand closed on the silk wrapped hilt it shimmered with a red light and faded though Sephiroth wasn't left entirely empty handed. He opened his hand to reveal a small Materia, the color of heart's blood.

"It's a Summons," he whispered in shock. "How?"

Veld swore through gritted teeth with his hands pressed to Sephiroth's stomach. Without the length of steel in place, blood gushed out of the open wound and spilled over Veld's fingers, even as they glowed with green and gold light from the magic he was casting. Sephiroth could see the Restore Materia in the steel wristwatch that doubled as Veld's defensive armband. Flesh knitted together slowly from the inside out leaving Sephiroth dizzy and lightheaded from the blood loss. Once it was finished, Sephiroth stared down at a familiar scar, a purple line roughly the width of his palm. Just like Cloud's. Just like Zack's.

The blade itself seemed surprisingly wide for a Wusheng sword. Probably to support the slashing force of the blade despite the Materia slots punched through the spine. Sephiroth thought, his musings strangely distant and clinical as he stared at the dark line.

Veld's good hand rested heavily on his stomach, the man looked exhausted. "I don't have a Heal Materia on hand. We need to make sure that there aren't any infections from a ruptured intestine."

Sephiroth was pretty sure that he was fine, some smells are unforgettable. He was about to object, when Cloud spoke up. "I do."

They both looked up at Cloud. He still stood with his hands held carefully out, looking worried, but not about the gun that was pointed at him. That concern just made Sephiroth angry. He clenched his fist around the small Materia hard enough that his knuckles turned white. "Since when do you care?" he asked bitterly.

"I've always cared," He said. "Even against my better judgment. Why did you burn the town?"

"What-?"

"From what I saw," Veld said, interrupting Sephiroth's question. "just as much of the damage was caused by you. I thought the two of you were more professional than a lover's spat in the middle of town. Civilian casualties don't look good for the company. Or WolfHaven."

Cloud glared at him.

"It was the other one," Sephiroth said as he finally put the pieces together. They must have seen the madman, his other self from the future, and thought that it was him. Everyone turned to look at him. "Cloud, have you spoken with WolfHaven recently?"

He knew the answer, and by the sharp inhale Cloud figured it out as well. He asked. "Where is he?"

Sephiroth nodded towards the railing where the other man went over. "Dead, in the Mako. He… jumped."

"What? Are you sure?" the tip of the fusion swords wavered, dipping slightly, as a look of confusion flashed across Cloud's face, making him look younger then he was. "Why?"

Sephiroth shrugged. Veld glanced between the two of them suspiciously. "Who? What are you talking about?"

Sephiroth and Cloud looked at each other. Sephiroth could see Cloud carefully weighing his options. "It was-"

"Do not _lie_." Sephiroth interrupted him, dragging himself to his feet using the nearby railing for support. "Do not lie to _me_."

"Take it easy," Veld admonished him. "Cure only does so much."

Sephiroth brushed of Veld's concern with a careless shrug. "I spoke with Yuffie."

"She told me," Cloud said with a wince, a slight tightening around the eyes. "But, Sephiroth, Yuffie doesn't know everything-"

"_And_ Zack." That seemed to confuse Cloud, he tilted his head slightly to one side. "For someone who claims that he wants to kill me, he's surprisingly reluctant to do so- and very talkative about the future he came from."

"The what?" Veld asked, glancing between Sephiroth and Cloud. Suddenly Sephiroth felt better about not figuring out the time travel. If the _Turks_ couldn't figure it out, who could blame _him?_

"Not surprising," Cloud said. "In both timelines he was forced to kill Angeal when the degradation went out of control."

"Is that supposed to explain something?" Sephiroth asked roughly. He was sick and tired of just getting little crumbs of information—just enough to keep him going, but never enough to give him any real answers.

"I'll explain," Cloud said. "But not here. It's not secure, and Sephiroth still needs to be seen to."

"I'm fine," Sephiroth said sharply, he hated how he sounded less like an assertive SOLDIER and more like a petulant child.

Veld shot him a disapproving glance, but didn't argue. He was a Turk; he'd keep silent now and forego the frontal assault to rally his argument and blindside Sephiroth later. "The mansion has been swept and secured, we can return there."

Sephiroth didn't miss the slight shudder from Cloud at the mention of the ShinRa mansion, but he didn't object to the plan. He hesitated too long to ask about it; the moment quickly passed as Veld shuffled them off under Valentine's watchful eyes. Once outside Sephiroth could see why Cloud didn't object to returning to the mansion.

Nibelheim was burning.

He felt his breath catch in his throat, and he remembered Zack's words, _he's just going to watch everything burn again. _He turned to face Cloud. "What happened? Why aren't-?" He choked off the question, realizing that asking why they weren't helping was less then polite.

Cloud glanced at him. The flat, emotionless front was firmly back in place. "He burned the town on his way through. Early alarms were raised, and the local fire department is taking care of the blaze."

"This place is big enough for a fire department?" Sephiroth asked skeptically.

"It's mostly volunteer," Cloud said. "A couple of guys with Water Materia."

"And they made it abundantly clear that ShinRa assistance would not be appreciated as it was one of our own that caused the damage," Veld added, giving both him and Cloud a hard look. "We followed the trail to the reactor."

It was hard not to feel like an errant child under that glare. Though _he_ didn't set the fires, Sephiroth could see where Veld might have gotten that impression. He doubted that the townspeople would be able to differentiate between him and the madman. Sephiroth paused, ran that thought through his head again and turned to Cloud. "What did _you_ do?"

"I had things under control," Cloud protested, looking uncomfortable and adding under his breath.

Veld snorted sharply. "If that had happened with one of my Turks, you can believe that he'd get reamed up one side and down the other. That is exactly why we have Sleepel and Stop spells."

"Which weren't working," Cloud said shortly. Sephiroth winced. Had it been his earlier speculation about needing something to block the Sleep spells from Fuhito and Hojo's henchmen, lead to this? To Cloud not being able to stop him when he needed to and the town burning? Unfortunately his reaction did not pass unnoticed. Cloud gave him a sympathetic look. "It wasn't your fault."

"How can you be sure?" Sephiroth asked. "How can you know that it wasn't my thoughts—memories—driving that-"

"Because now we know; we can change it," Cloud said simply. The mansion appeared in the distance, without another word, Cloud picked up his pace towards the building.

"Know what?" Sephiroth shouted after him. "He didn't tell me anything that you or Zack didn't already know."

Veld placed a restraining hand heavily on Sephiroth's shoulder. He could have easily knocked the other man away, he wanted to, but instead he took a calming breath. He hadn't even realized that he has been shaking. His hands trembled with emotions he couldn't even begin to define churning inside of him. When Veld spoke the words were soft. "What do they know?"

"I-" Sephiroth hesitated. He _wanted _to say that they were wrong, and he was going to fight that outcome tooth and nail, somehow. But someone should be prepared for the possibility that Cloud was wrong, and that he really could, would, go mad. If neither Zack nor Cloud were going to kill him, someone was going to have to, and the Turks were already trained for taking out fully trained SOLDIERs. "I'm going to go insane. That man that burned the town _was_ me. Or rather, that is what I am going to be."

Both Veld and Valentine gave him long measured looks. "From the future?"

Sephiroth nodded at Veld's incredulous question. "You couldn't have missed the inconsistencies in the video? Tuesti? The WRO? The professor Dessau who doesn't seem to exist outside of the recording? Valentine, who probably has no memory of attending? What did you think it meant?"

"I was leaning towards massive, underground, anti-ShinRa conspiracy," Veld said, rubbing absently at his ear. "Because, time travel?"

"You hacked WolfHaven's network," Sephiroth pointed out. "Didn't you get any information on their primary project?"

"I was only able to determine that they were receiving massive data dumps from an untraceable source," Veld said with a shake of his head. "I only got a glance before their security system fried my computer; actually killed the fans and caused it to overheat until it burst into flames. The only thing saved was a handful of files that went straight to the printer."

Sephiroth scowled. "That's practically useless."

Veld nodded. He started up the path following after Cloud. "We might as well find out what he knows, or at least what he's willing to tell us."

"Sephiroth?" Vincent's soft voice stopped him as Sephiroth started after Veld. He turned to give the other man a questioning look. Vincent seems troubled, his brow furrowed. After a long pause he asked. "What is that man to you?"

"Veld?" Sephiroth asked, thrown by the question.

Vincent shook his head. "The other one, Cloud?"

"Cloud Strife," Sephiroth paused to consider his answer. "He's my mentor in SOLDIER." The words seemed wrong. While he had learned a lot working with Cloud informally, it didn't begin to properly address the morass of conflicting emotions the man aroused within Sephiroth. Something Vincent clearly picked up on.

"You trust him?" Valentine asked. Sephiroth wanted to say '_yes.' _He wanted it to be true. "He tried to kill you."

Sephiroth shook his head. "He thought I was someone else."

"WolfHaven wants you dead." Given what he could become, would become, Sephiroth was beginning to think that they had good reason. He shook his head and remained silent for the rest of the trip to the mansion.


End file.
